For someone who is 55+ and looking towards retirement, or for a senior who is already retired, this next part of our clubhouse might excite you.

Active adult communities are great places to socialize, but sometimes you need to get away from it all.

What better way than to lose yourself, than in a book?

At every clubhouse we’ve ever built, we include a library.

Clubhouse Tour Part 5

Do you like to read?

I have to admit, this is probably my favorite part of the clubhouse. Granted everybody has their preferences, but for me, I have always loved a good story. Not only do I like to read them, but I like to write them as well.

If you think about it, television and radio have only been around for a brief part of human history. Before that, knowledge was passed from one generation to the next via verbal and written stories. Our brains have evolved to learn from stories. In fact, the popularity of TV and radio has been because they brought about another form of storytelling.

A good story can incite emotional responses within your brain that solidify those teaching. Even a horror story can trick your brain into a reality that your subconscious can’t distinguish as fantasy. So from the safety of your own sofa, you can experience stress, then overcome it. This can actually train your brain to cope with real problems when they arise in your own life.

Whether it happened like this or not, I love to envision a time when the family would all gather around a lamp or candle at the end of a long hard day’s work. The father would set the flickering flame in front of him and all the children would sit Indian style at his feet.

Expertly he would bring stories, real and fictional to life. The family would listen with rapt attention as he shared his own experience, that of past generations, or those of complete fiction. Morals would be taught. Life lessons would be learned. Heritage and culture would be passed on.

I can only hope that someday my own storytelling skills match the masterful way that I envision those storytellers of old.

Take a book, leave a book.

Leisure Villas’ libraries have no actual librarian. The HOA might appoint someone to keep an eye on it so that it doesn’t fill up with everybody’s collection of Readers Digest books or gets cluttered with old obsolete books that nobody cares to read.

The whole idea is that you can borrow a book on the honor system, then bring it back when you’re done with it and grab another. There’s no harm in adding a book or two here or there, just as long as they’re books that will have a high appeal.

This library is intended to actually get read and not to turn into the local book dump.

Amenities that get used.

These clubhouses are meant to be used. You can sit the nice clubhouse sofas and read a good book, setting it down occasionally to converse with whoever else happens to be passing through the clubhouse. You can take the book home to read in the privacy of your own home. Often book clubs will pop up around these libraries.

Whatever you like to do, Leisure Villas’ clubhouses should have something for you.

This blog was written by BC Crow. To learn more about books by him, visit his website at http://www.bluehpublishing.com/