Judging a Retirement Town by Its Bookstore

For any of those who have been checking my site I seem to have lost a few days. Sorry about leaving you with our friend Mr. Buckley for so long.

South Padre Island is currently working on a Comprehensive Plan and there are little eddies of opinion all over the sandbar about what the Island should look like in the future. One of the only constants is the desire to attract upper middle class early retirees - the baby boomers or the "zoomers" as one consultant called this demographic group. (Isn't everyone trying to market to the boomers?)

So I thought this article was interesting. Maybe the town should be looking at granting me some kind of tax break or other incentive to provide a needed element in attracting this very group of people to the Island!!

Judging a Retirement Town by Its Bookstore » Topretirements: "Baby boomers have begun the search for their ideal retirement communities. For many of them, the quality of the town’s bookstore is a key selection criterion."


We feel the same way – communities without good book stores are ghost towns. This article will review some of the top retirement towns in America – based on the quality of their bookstores

The article interviewed a number of authors and had them select their favorite town based on its bookstores. Here is the list. I would someday like to see South Padre Island and Paragraphs included.

Fayetteville, Arkansas: “Nightbird Books”
Little Rock, Arkansas “Sleuths Mystery Bookstore”, and “WordsWorth Books & Co.”
Blytheville, Arkansas: “That Bookstore in Blytheville” - where John Grisham signs his best-sellers.
Fairhope, Alabama “Fairhope Books”
Sedona, Arizona: “Red Coyote”
Corte Madera, California “Book Passage” – (Hallie Ephron)
Coral Gables, Florida “Books & Books “
Delray Beach, Florida: “Murder by the Beach”
Sun Valley, Idaho
Cambridge, Massachusetts: “Porter Square”, “Kate’s Mystery Books”
Portsmouth, NH: “River Run Bookstore”
Newmarket, New Hampshire: “Crackskull’s used bookstore.
Princeton, New Jersey: “Cloak & Dagger” (Roberta Isleib)
Fearington Village, North Carolina (near Chapel Hill) “Macintyre’s” (Mignon Ballard)
Edmond Oklahoma: “Best of Books”
Portland, Oregon: 2 amazing bookstores – “Murder by the Book” and “Powell’s”
Oakmont, Pennsylvania: “Mystery Lovers Bookshop” (Oakmont is a great little town right outside Pittsburgh - Name of Bookstore corrected 11/27)
Seattle, Washington” “Seattle Mystery Books” (Pamela Samuels-Young)