Liesureville

[gingersmom]

Has anyone read this new book which "knocks" TV and our lifestyle? I've read excerpts on the web and it's pretty harsh.

[villager99]

i've read leisureville and although i have personal reasons for choosing to live in the villages i do think the issues of how age seggrated communities impact our national culture and deprive our prior communities of our resources are important social concerns.
with the trend of retirement communities growing one can ask if in the future working and family oriented communities will be completely lacking in elder residents.

[Laura]

Haven't read it yet (Leisureville by Andrew D. Blechman) but am on the list for borrowing it.
L.

[graciegirl]

I read it and I wasn't nearly as annoyed as most folks are. It was a fairly decent summary of life in TV with a little sex and criticism to wave a few flags and sell a few books.

[TomW]

Many of our friends and family know we are strongly considering TV for our retirement. It seems nearly every single one has come across a review of "Leisureville" and felt compelled to send it on to us. I expect I have received a dozen electronic and paper copies of the Times review. A friend and fellow future TV'er has the book and I will read it as soon as she finishes with it.

[Taltarzac]

This book has been a hot topic at the Doggie Doo Run Run which has a lot of villagers as customers. As far as I know the dogs could not care less about Leisureville but it has seemed to upset some Villagers mainly because of how much it seems to focus on just four main characters in TV. I have not read the book yet but it sounds like these four characters belong more in some soap opera focusing on men addicted to viagra...?

I am on a lending list at two of the local library systems for this book as well.

[gingersmom]

Sounds like I'll have to get someone to lend it to me rather than rushing to Barnes & Noble!

[diskman]

Both my wife and I read it & found it to be very interesting and informative. We didn't take it to be negative other than the sexual goings on. An old high school friend chimed in with a high HIV rate in TV.
With respect to how our old community would miss us, who cares. All they will really miss would be our tax dollars.
Larry & Bev

[ouma1938]

I am in the middle of reading Leisureville and I really take exception to the author's implication that because we want to live in a community of our peers, and don't particularly want to be surrounded by children all the time, and we want our tax dollars to take care of the upkeep of our roads etc., we are selfish and non caring thoughtless people. I wrote a letter and informed the author and the reviewer that this was not the case. We all love our grandchildren and love turning them over back to their parents, and while we are community minded and volunteer and support education we have worked hard most of our lives, raised our own children, and are now entitled to a quiet, relaxed, lifestyle doing what we want and helping how we want. I feel we have earned our Utopia and no one should begrudge us our TV. I also told the, that one day, God willing, they would grow older and I bet their feelings will change dramaticaly then. And I don't even live in TV yet. But will one day, soon, if Saint Joseph gets busy and does his thing.

[MelZ]

My impressions after reading Liesureville are:

He is a very good writer and it flows nicely But he is completely biased (he admits it in the 1st chapter) and tries to justify his bias and prove himself right.

I also think some of his characters in the Villages are fiction or at best a amalgum of many people.

He tries to be fair when is talks about how little of his tax bill is for "the senior center" but makes the mistake of never opening his eyes and trying to understand. Therefore all is tries to do is prove he is right.

Having said that I found the history of Adult Communities very interesting.

If you decide to read it keep an open mind

[Taltarzac]

He sure does not seem to enjoy playing Bingo very much. He has a Stephen King like re-action to it. I mean the subject of Bingo looks like something Stephen King should be writing about according to Andrew Blechman.

[Floridagal]

I read the book and took it as another good book to read. Didn't take it at face value.

[graciegirl]

It has ALL of the wisdom of a childless young couple expounding on how to raise children.

[Taltarzac]

It has ALL of the wisdom of a childless young couple expounding on how to raise children.


Great description graciegirl. Thumbed through the same author's book on pigeons which is actually quite a bit more objective and it looks like he spent a very large amount of time and research and even more on thinking and writing the book called Pigeons http://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm?book_number=1901 than the one called Leisureville.

It seems like Blechman's book Leisureville is all about his two weeks or so in the Villages in late 2005 (December?) and how he learned to hate it here.

[MelZ]

Graciegirl:

Perfect description

[macgolfnut]

Gracie, that was a great analogy. I read the book and went from mildly chuckling to some interest to anger to feeling that the author is an idiot. While it is pretty easy reading, he cannot stick to one side of the argument. IMHO there is nothing wrong with wanting to be around people of a similar age and interests. The world has changed from the 1950's. There is no reason we should feel guilty because we don't want to live with our children and be permanent baby-sitters for them. TV is paradise and we have discovered a place where we can not only age gracefully, but have a great time doing it. He needs to find another cause. I wonder if his former neighbors still talk to him. I wouldn't.

[ebliss1]

I actually found Leisureville to be very informative. Yes, you need to filter out the author's biases and his publisher's obvious attempts to emphasize conflict and controversy and also to "sex it up", but once you get through that, a lot of good info comes through.

Personally, my grandmother moved to a 55+ community in Leesburg when I was 8 and my grandfather died and never looked back. She had a great time down there and made some great friends, even met a second husband. Reading Leisureville opened my eyes a great deal to what she saw in such a place and why it appealed to her.

After reading it, I decided to explore TV a little more, having never heard about it prior to the book. Since I started looking, I've become convinced that I want to move there as soon as I can retire and am working on convincing the wife that its a good idea. The timing will be good since my daughter will be out of college when we can retire with full benefits and we have a couple years to plan.

So all in all, for me at least, reading it has given me some direction for what I want to do with my retirement that seems a lot more fulfilling than sitting around up here in Pennsylvania watching Wheel of Fortune and complaining that my grandkids don't call more.

[faithfulfrank]

I just read the book a few weeks ago. The first part I loved because we could so relate to it. We visited Florida 1.5 years ago, never thought we would like it or consider it our future home. I month later we were 55+ community central Florida homeowners. (We bought in The Plantation...never heard of the Villages until later).

I found myself liking parts of the book, and being angry at other parts of the book. I think he was biased most of the time, and I resented his viewpoint that we were "wronging society" by buying a home in a 55+ gated golf community. Anyway, it held my interest, gave me some things to think about, and taught me that we must be pro active to insure a healthy future for our community.

Frank D.

[carole131]

I read it and I wasn't nearly as annoyed as most folks are. It was a fairly decent summary of life in TV with a little sex and criticism to wave a few flags and sell a few books.

I'm reading it for the second time. I agree with your summation, but, "annoyed"? Not at all. There's quite a bit of tongue-in-cheek in the book. I'm amused at Andrew Blechman's seeming disappointment about the community being restricted to adults. For some, that's the whole idea! :icon_wink: