'The Florida show, I think, draws a younger crowd'

Among book fairs, some people think the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair attracts a particularly younger crowd. We happen to agree, and indeed, we celebrate it. And why not? St. Petersburg is a young, vibrant town. So is the whole Tampa Bay area. Young people are increasingly drawn to traditional books, and away from the devices that seem to permeate our lives.

So it's no wonder that booksellers like Jerry Merkel of Xenia, Ohio, made the remark about the Florida show on a recent live streamed broadcast of Rare Book Cafe, the internet's only regularly scheduled program devoted entirely to rare and collectible books.

 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, the southeast's largest antiquarian book fair, runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 26, 27, and 28 at The Coliseum in downtown St. Petersburg. Tickets are now on sale at Eventbrite.com.

The younger fans of the book fair

These fun-loving people were at the 2013 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. We came across their picture the other day and it reminded us that the book fair appeals to all ages.

Granted, their attendance probably helps skew the average age of fair-goers a bit lower but it's a welcome trend we're seeing year-after-year. And why not? Love of traditional books certainly isn't limited to the silver-haired crowd. It's a trend being noted at book fairs all across the country. Indeed, Booktryst observed a couple of years ago the large number of young people seen walking the aisles at the California International Book Fair, and even imagined them becoming passionate book collectors.

Four years ago,  Sally Burdon wrote on the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) blog about seeing young collectors at the Hong Kong Antiquarian Book Fair. And last year, Chris Volk, writing in the IOBA Standard, the Journal of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, noted seeing "lots and lots of young adults" at places like the Los Angeles Times Book Festival and the Tucson Book Festival.

For years, the doom and gloom set have been predicting the demise of printed books, but we're not having any of that theory. From our observation and what we're seeing around the country, the young of America (at least some of them ) are discovering a passion for antiquarian books. We're thrilled.