There is a Treasure of Books at Bookaneers!

When I think of bookstores I frequent when I want something to read quickly, and usually for pleasure, they are always independent bookstores.

When I was growing up in Greenfield, Massachusetts, everyone went to World Eye Bookstore. They were a fixture on the lower end of Federal Street, until a fire tragically destroyed the store. People mourned the passing of World Eye, because it was thought they were finished. Not so fast! Within months, they reopened in a Main Street storefront, and the community cheered.

Later I lived in Maine, and there was an awesome used bookstore in Saco, literally operated out of my friend Mike Smith's garage, and under tents when it was nice weather. Tragically, Mike was offered a job in Florida, doing, of all things, training military members how to defuse bombs. Who knew the old hippie had served in that capacity back in the 60s? I never would have guessed it, but apparently he was quite good, so he shut up his store, sold the house and moved to Florida's panhandle.

A few years after Mike moved south, I did too, and in 2012 I landed in Citrus County, Florida. Tucked away in a side street running parallel to the main drag in the community of Beverly Hills is a wonderful little store named Bookaneers. Daisy Bazo is the proprietor of Bookaneers. She opened this particular store in 2013, and whenever I go in there, I always walk out with half a dozen books or more.

My old buddy Mike used to sell paperbacks for a buck and hard cover books for two, but most of his stock came from free listings on craigslist or buying boxes of books at yard sales for a few dollars. Daisy's prices are not that low, but she does buy back books her customers no longer need for store credit. I have never availed myself of this because to me, books keep well, and if I've read it once and enjoyed it, why not save it again for the future?

Daisy has her ranch-home-turned-bookstore organized by rooms. Walk into one room, you will find Scifi/Fantasy books. Walk into another room, you may find cooking and health books. Then you can find a room full of children's books, and in each of these rooms, books are organized alphabetically by author. With more than 14,000 books in the store, it is easy to spend hours in the store, if you are so-inclined, but with the way Daisy has the store organized, if you are in a hurry and know what you are looking for, it is possible to zip in and zip out.

Bookaneers is open six days a week, save for Sunday, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., giving Daisy time to spend with her family, including young children, who we can sometimes see curled up with a book somewhere in the store. Daisy says on her website that she learned to read by age 5, but one suspects that her children may have learned even earlier.

One thing is certain - her kids will never run out of high-quality reading material!