If you’re heading to a festival this year, keep an eye out for the Dylan Thomas BookBus, a second-hand book shop that tours the festival circuit. Luke Owain Boult speaks with one of the brains behind the operation Joseph Towns about the initiative.
What is the general idea behind the BookBus?
We like to describe ourselves as Gonzo Booksellers. It’s fairly chaotic. But we love books and we have rather a lot of them so we like to go places where there are other folk who love books too. And obviously, it’s a cracking excuse to get into festivals! See great bands, meet lovely people… Frank Zappa had a lyric that went “Don’t make a fuss, just get on the Bus”. That’s our motto.
How did it get started?
I used to have a bookshop but regular back street second-hand bookstores were struggling under the pressure of rising overheads and the growth of Amazon and E-Reading. My son suggested a mobile bookshop (whilst we were in a pub in Laugharne) and I went online and found this vintage but wonderful ex-Wakefield County Council Mobile Library Van. Seven and half tons of it! Got the train to Harrogate and drove the beast back to Wales where we rebranded it Dylan’s Mobile Bookstore. Last year The Guardian named us in their top ten second hand bookshops in the world!
What do you have planned for this festival season?
We’ll kick things off at the Laugharne Weekend in April where we are launching our first book – a new book of poems by a poet called Oliver Lomax. The Dylan’s Mobile Bookstore Press has begun! We’ll be at the super-festivals like Green Man and Latitude, they both have incredible line ups…and they really look after us and treat us like artists and let us use the posh showers! Then we’ll be doing small boutique events like Uplands Market in Swansea, Insole Court in Llandaff, the wonderful Art Car Bootique in Chapter Cardiff, and the Art Car Bootfair in London…a funky Secret Festival called the Blue Lagoon which we can’t tell you anymore about! Then a Literary Festival in Llansteffan, and we finish in September with our favourite festival: the Good Life Experience on the Gladstone Estate in North Wales. It’s run by Cerys Matthews and she is a huge supporter of the BookBus. She has great taste!
What is it about Dylan Thomas you find so inspiring?
He was a great poet who lived a rich but short life, but one who still inspires writers, artists, musicians and me, from the grave. Our name is actually a nod to another Dylan too: Bob Dylan. He’s also a hero of ours. And you’ll often here his tunes being played on-board the bus.
You’ve mentioned a disdain for internet bookselling. Could you let us know why this is?
All you learn about a customer on the internet is their credit card number – which is useful but surely the dullest thing they have to offer. We prefer face to face human interaction.
There is no better feeling that introducing someone to a book that is absolutely perfect for them.
Info: www.dylans.com