Book Stations & life in a community, example: The Simple Life

The town called The Simple Life

I can picture quite a few towns by that name and purpose. Some where people come together to share their skills to make a simple but relatively secure life together happen. Or towns that are full of people who prefer solitude over community, or a mix of both.

The people in this town will focus on getting done what needs getting done, such as farming, cooking, looking after minors. But they wouldn’t do much else, and instead enjoy their community or their solitude rather than rushing around.

And maybe most importantly, the town makes a simple life possible by offering low rents, and low energy and low foods costs.

This should be possible if the town is build thoughtfully (giving spaces for community life and for solitude, plus accommodations which are safe but simple) and if food, energy and waste management are done by the towners.

Plus, there would need to be some kind of codex for the towners to ensure that everyone understands what this town is about.

Some emergency budget can be generated by a limited extend of tourism, and some of the artists or craftspeople might occasionally sell their creations outside the town.

book stations and life in a community

A book station is always meant to root itself in the community and that starts on the first day of building. Ideally, people of all ages and skills help during the building phase and later add their trades and crafts to the book station. In return the book station offers jobs, gardens, events, power from its independent micro grid, farm goods from its gardens and farms and generally places where people can come together.

The Simple Life is a special case since this town functions at a slow pace and doesn’t ask for much. If anything, the towners tend to live from day to day.

That’s not exactly an easy environment to run a business in unless the business adapts. And if you think about it, what is at the core of a book station? Books. And books contain stories, and stories do not rush, (unless you hand them to film makers who squeeze a great story into two or three hours), so The Simple Life is quite an ideal place to dive into the worlds of books. And to have a book station — maybe even at its centre.

So long as enough towners chip in, the book station can get all the work done without anyone overstretching. And since people don’t need much money in The Simple Life, it doesn’t matter if they only work occasionally or for a few hours. All the book station has to do is remain flexible.

Besides, while the towners love their simple undemanding life, they are not sloppy — if something needs doing, they will.