Positive Real-Life Bookish Experiences: Armchair BEA

The amazing organizers over at Armchair BEA are asking us to share positive real-life bookish experiences today.

Where to start? Since I’ve been blogging, I’ve taken a much more active interest in my local independent bookstore (Malaprops in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC) and all the author events they have going on. We get some very well-known authors for a town our size! Some of my favorites have been Sarah Addison Allen, Joshilyn Jackson, Charles Vess, and John Connolly (whom I was apparently too lazy to write about).

Through other book bloggers, I learned about the Decatur Book Festival and attended the past two years.  It is such a great opportunity to meet authors and other bibliophiles!  I highly recommend going if you can.

But I’ll write about something a little different.

I’ve been on GoodReads a couple of years longer than I’ve been blogging. I “met” Sonya on there and befriended her, and was thrilled to find out that she was from a little town just over the mountain from my own. We shared book recommendations and tips about what was going on within our own local literary community.

In January of this year, we decided it was finally time to meet face-to-face. I was a little nervous, and I think she was too. What if this other person was a serial killer or something? But we were meeting at a place we both love (You have to love a place called The Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne Bar. Books and champagne. Throw in some chocolate and you have my idea of heaven. The best chocolate you will ever taste is just a street over.) It was like meeting an old friend. We talked and laughed over a bottle of wine like we had known each other for years. That kind of connection is very rare for me because I’m so reserved, but, come to think about it, that is how all my friendships start.

We decided to form a book club and grabbed some other literary friends to join us. It is so great to go out once and month and eat a good meal and laugh and talk books with a group of fellow readers. I still don’t talk much because it takes me much longer to get comfortable in a group, but I enjoy listening to everyone else.  So far we’ve read Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese, Still Alice by Lisa Genova, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  For TKAM, we met for Sunday lunch and then went to see the play at our local community theater.  It was great to do something a little different!

What kind of positive real-life bookish experience have you had?

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s, my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.