Paul Collins has written a love letter to every dusty, long-ignored book on the creaking shelves of bookstores. His recent work, \Sixpence House"" honors those forgotten titles that have faded into obscurity like the disappearing text of their pages and unthreading knots of their spines. It delivers a moving tribute to the books that used to be glossy-covered and popular but are now dull in appearance and just a bit of occupied shelf space.
In the small Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye reside 1,500 people and 40 bookstores. From his brief stay in this pastoral, dream-like place comes Collins' praise of bookworms and literary folks. Hay-on-Wye, an antiquarian place, produced the contemplative and eloquent little volume of ""Sixpence House."" The Daily Cardinal recently spoke with Mr. Collins about English culture, independent bookstores and the attraction of dusty pages.
Were you one of those kids who just sat in libraries and looked down the shelves?
Yeah, pretty much. I started writing when I was a teenager so I was interested in that as well. Probably the first writer whose work I really connected to as a teenager was Kurt Vonnegut. I also enjoyed, in general, just going to the library and looking around, poking at odd things.
Did you have any culture shock upon moving to England?
No culture shock, really. More like culture amusement.
There are so many instances with mailbox comments and tea that it seems like a foreign place.
The weird thing about Britain is that it's easy to go there and not realize how different it is. Maybe this is just the difference between Europe and America: It's not as consumer-oriented a culture. People often, particularly in the smaller villages, will just go home in the middle of the day. It's not a seven-day-a-week, 24-hour business culture. They don't necessarily have to act like they like you when you're a customer. In some ways, when you're an American you feel put out, initially. But at the same time, it's kind of a more humane way to run an economy. People are not knocking themselves out for their bosses. And there's something nice about that.
Have you heard anything of the Madison book culture?
I've been to a few of those stores there. My very first semester at college was at the UW and then I transferred to California because I couldn't take the weather. At that particular time I wasn't able to do all that much browsing and book buying. But I do remember the library, and spending a lot of time there. UW's libraries. It was the first time I had been exposed to a big, academic library, with millions of volumes. That was kind of an overwhelming experience and I was really impressed. And I spent a lot of time just looking around and picking up books at random.
Do you feel a commitment to smaller, independent bookstores?
Very much so. The big stores and the online outlets can be convenient, but at the same time, they don't do a very good job at finding new writers. They don't do what's known as hand-selling, recommending a book because someone really likes the book. At the chain stores, they're recommending a book because someone has paid them.
Because it sells well.
