My fall MELTED AWAY tour took a unique detour to The Villages today, to a lovely used & new bookstore called All Booked Up. This was a meet-and-greet event, not a reading, and I talked with some very interesting people and garnered some new readers. It was great to get a check at the end for books sold, thanks to the lovely store owner, Jamie.
This was my and Jorge’s first time in The Villages, and it struck us as “Cocoon” Meets Disney — very manicured, very accessible, and very sheltered from the outside world. About 40% of those we met were piloting golf carts, which sported political and team stickers, and a few of them had been customized to resemble classic cars.
Among the people I met: a former park ranger from Alaska, a world traveler with a son in Costa Rica, a woman caring for her husband with Lewy Body dementia, and a young man who has just self-published his first fantasy novel — at 200,000 words!
Perhaps what impressed me most was witnessing the volume of clientele that visited All Booked Up within the 3-hour window that I was there. Many people brought in 5 or so used books to trade, and walked out with that many or more — voracious readers! Nothing pleases me more than to see booklovers indulging their cravings with passion and gusto.
