Who’s ready for a lovely literary weekend getaway?
Well, the town of Hobart Village in the Northern Catskills region of upstate New York is a book lover’s dream! Tucked away next to the Catskill Mountains, this quaint little village is full of the most charming range of bookstores–and (practically) only bookstores!
If you’ve never heard of a book village before, the concept began in 1961 in Wales, according to the Hobart Book Village’s website.
In a small town called “Hay-on-Wye,” a businessman named Richard Booth bought multiple buildings next to each other and turned them all into bookstores. Over time, that grew to almost 25 independent bookstores.
Thus, the idea of a “Book Town” or “Book Village” was born!
In 2005, Hobart, NY local Don Dales decided to start the only book village east of the Mississippi. Nine different independent bookstores now call it home (along with a few other businesses like antique shops and art galleries). They are:
- LionEyesBooks
- Blenheim Hill Books
- Liberty Rock Books, LLC
- Adams’ Antiquarian Books
- Creative Corner Books
- NY Books & Ephemera
- Quarry Books
- More Good Books
- The Book Nook
It’s become quite a haven for readers and writers everywhere; they even host the annual Festival of Women Writers there, and also host two huge semi-annual sales the weekends of Memorial Day and Thanksgiving Day that draw hundreds of visitors.
All of the village’s shops are located on Main St. in Hobart, NY in the Northern Catskills. Find out more on their website here!
Don’t have time for a weekend getaway? No worries–NYC has plenty of fabulous places for bookworms to head to, such as The Ripped Bodice, a boutique Brooklyn bookstore that solely sells romance novels, Book Club Bar, which is part bookstore part wine bar, and The Twisted Spine, NYC’s first horror bookstore.