Leisureville: An Inside Look at The Villages
November 6, 2008 by thevillagesfloridabook
"If you’re seriously considering moving to The Villages, I recommend to folks that they read one other book (besides mine) before making the plunge.
Leisureville, by Andrew Blechman, provides a very accurate (and often humorous) account of what life is really like in The Villages. While Mr. Blechman focuses on some of the more…uh, let’s just call them “extreme”… characters you may encounter in The Villages, Leisureville provides a lot of insight that you could really only otherwise gather from living amongst it yourself.
You may see on a lot of forums or blogs about The Villages that there has been some backlash towards Mr. Blechman and Leisureville, especially from Villagers who feel like they need to defend the community and lifestyle they have chosen. While everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, you shouldn’t let this stop you from reading this book.
As long as you read Leisureville with an open mind, you’ll pick up on a lot of things you may have never known about the U.S.’s most talked about retirement community. Some you may like, some things you might not like, but I do guarantee the book will make you laugh.
With the holiday’s coming up, now is the perfect time to catch up on some reading. Be sure to add Leisureville to your list."
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10 November 2008
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2 comments:
Enjoyed your book Andy. I live in a little known Sun City - Sun City Oro Valley, AZ, aka, Sun City Vistoso. It is 20 years old and well maintained by a population whose median age is around 70 and dropping.
We are part of the township of Oro Valley, a bedroom community for Tucson, which has homes ranging from $200K to well into the several million dollar range. Houses are still selling here despite the downturn.
A striking difference between the communities you visited is that we are very much a part of the surrounding communities although the 'oldies' do not venture into downtown Tucson very often - probably because it like Oakland CA, "There is no there, there."
Also, many of our full time inhabitants still have full time jobs, or work from home. But then, only 55% live here full time, the others are scattered across the U.S. but mostly from the Middle West states.
Perhaps we are the exception to the examples you wrote about, and yes, it does get a bit boring here from time to time, but then doesn't it everywhere?
I shall check your blog from time to time and stay current with your writing.
We subscribe to the NYTimes and I suspect we'll see your name pop up there.
Thanks agian for your very insightful look into the communities of the youtful oldies.
Bill Critch in Oro Valley, AZ
http://bowyangbill.blogspot.com/index.html
Bill,
Nice to hear from you. Nice to hear that you enjoyed the book.
Happy New Year,
Andrew
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