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August 02, 2007
Hay on Wye
I managed to not buy a single book even though I spent a few days in the Welsh book town. I found that most bookshops hadn't much to offer other than editions of old books on gymnastics and MS-DOS. There was a good children's bookshop where I almost bought a "Famous Five" first edition. Then I realized 55 pounds was too much money for a book I wasn't going to read and that I craved out of childhood nostalgia. As an exception to the rule, the Poetry bookshop was excellent - again, I almost bought Cavafy's Poems but then realized there were three different editions on the shelf, each translated by a different person into English and they were strikingly different. On one of the prefaces, Auden commented on the difficulty of translating him, and hence the different versions, but also how Cavafy's poems were immediately recognizable since they don't depend on language but on their themes and imagery. Nonetheless, I couldn't decide on which to buy and left.
Also took some long walks to Clyro where the Baskerville Hall is. Even saw a grave at the village cemetery for people who perished during WWI where there was a reference to a Captain Baskerville. Supposedly Conan Doyle stayed here visiting the family and drew inspiration from local lore about a hound that haunted the moors.
Highlight: the B&B where I stayed had some books for guests to read and that' where I ran into Alan Bennett's Untold Stories. His fun and witty diaries kept me company through days of hard rain. Almost had to swim back to London...except that I can't swim.
Posted by claudia