The Man Who Transformed a Welsh Town Into a ‘Kingdom’ of Used Books.
The historic Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye was once a sleepy shire, home to a few hundred people who by and large made their living farming sheep. But then came Richard Booth, a bombastic, outrageous figure who decided to fill the town with hundreds of thousands of used books. Booth, who died on August 20 at the age of 80, according to Sam Roberts of the New York Times, helped transform Hay-on-Wye into a literary hub and a tourism magnet. Today, the town’s famous Festival of Liter