No worthwhile photos, but we made an outing to Clunes on Saturday for the second annual Booktown event. Having been to Hay-on-Wye 10 years ago, my hopes weren’t super high and I’m glad, because I thought it was a bit of a failure really. I don’t know what I expected, but it certainly wasn’t that 40 of the 50 booksellers would sell non-fiction military titles, mostly from the 60’s to 80’s, and that there would be only 2 smallish stores that sold relatively modern paperbacks. In some ways, I should have just gone to Book Affair in Carlton, as there was more range in that one shop that what I saw at Booktown. I was trying to buy a copy of “Crime and Punishment” and failed. 50 shops. Sheesh. I walked out with a single secondhand paperback that cost me $13. I love the idea of old towns finding ways to revitalise themselves, and perhaps the wide streets take a lot of filling, but even at the peak of the day at 2pm Saturday, the common areas felt half empty, whilst mostly elderly folks elbowed each other for bargains that barely existed. I don’t think I’ll go again.