• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

One of seven stores in Hobart Book Village.   (Photo: Courtesy of Wm. H. Adams’ Antiquarian Books)

Much like the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye, Hobart Book Village is home to seven independent bookstores, four of which are open on winter weekends. Feed your brain at the Coffee Pot (581 Main St.; 607-538-1800) before visiting the town’s oldest shop, Wm. H. Adams’ Antiquarian Books. There’s everything from leather-bound, seventeenth-century volumes to signed contemporary first editions. The multilingual staff at Hobart International Bookport can introduce you to foreign authors or help you tackle a work in the vernacular. Liberty Rock Books and Blenheim Hill Books share space at 698 Main Street; find vintage postcards, used books spanning 300 years, and even hardbacks off today’s best-seller lists. Take a break in Stamford for pastries and tea at the Kaaterskill House (18 River St., Stamford, N.Y.; 607-214-4100) before you go to the area’s largest bookstore, Bibliobarn. (627 Roses Brook Road, South Kortright, N.Y.; 607-538-1555). Forty thousand titles are shelved on two stories.

Published on Feb 18, 2009 as a web exclusive.