My kind of town...

Here’s an idea. Take a town with a collection of disused Victorian style buildings in a state of disrepair, call in a group of book traders, and created a ‘book town’.

According a recent article in the Melbourne Age, the small Australian town of Clune plans on doing just that.

It seems that many of Clunes old Victorian style buildings are sitting unused and in a state of disrepair. Looking for ways of turning around a lacklustre local economy, some town members came up with the idea of converting these buildings into a cluster of second-hand and antiquarian bookstores.

Of course, becoming a ‘book town’ will not happen overnight. A Book Town Working Party has been established and long term plans are being considered. The first step though will happen today with the town’s first ‘Book Town for the Day’.

Expecting only a handful of traders to sign on, the organizers were pleasantly surprised to get over 50 keen book traders ready and willing to set up book stalls.

The event will also host food and wine stalls, author readings, and the chance to discover a rare book or two. There will be one rare book worth over $800 hidden amongst the books, but with over 33,000 on display, the odds are not good.

The odds of putting Clunes, a short drive north of Ballarat, on the map as Australia’s ‘book town’ look very promising.

It definitely sounds like my kind of town…

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