THERE'S more to life than books, you know, but in Hay-on-Wye the divide between the printed word and the real world has largely been erased.

The little town in the Brecon Beacons has become Wales' largest repository of literature, with more than 30 bookshops to be investigated. Famous for hosting the UK's biggest literary festival, Hay is well worth a visit at any time of year.

The town lies on three borders, with the national border of England and Wales running through the town as well as the county boundaries of Brecknockshire and Radnorshire.

It has traditionally been a place of hostelry for hundreds of years because of its position on the road to Brecon, but Hay was not known for books before Richard Booth opened a shop there in 1961.

That shop is still trading and has been joined by specialists selling all kinds of remaindered, second-hand, antiquarian and rare books.

Practically every shop in the ancient and well-preserved town centre sells books - with even the castle hosting a bookshop.

Hay Cinema Bookshop on Castle Street is one of the biggest and visitors would be well-advised to memorise their steps in case they get lost and need to retrace them.

The shop, converted from the town's old cinema, contains a stock of 200,000 books on sport, theology, transport, history, esoterica, and fiction for children or adults.

Marijana Dworski Books, on Broad Street, specialises in books on language and travel, with an emphasis on Russian or Eastern European work.

And there are specialist poetry bookshops, map shops, bookshops dealing with murder and crime fiction, children's books, comics and trading cards, and even more.

For more information on Hay-on-Wye and the literary festival, call the Hay tourist office on 01497 820144.