Today's Armchair BEA topic is Let's Talk Networking. Sharing how you use your blog to get involved in your community and with other bloggers in real life. I don't know, I think I use my blog as an outlet because I don't meet people in real life who read. Okay, that's an excuse because I pretty much am a homebody. My second excuse is that I've only been blogging for about 2 weeks. My third excuse is that I once went to a real life book club and had a horrible experience. It was like a bunch of people were trying to one-up each other to be the smartest guy (girl) in the room. One guy even lifted ideas off the NYT's review of the featured book. I never went back.
Okay, excuses out of the way, today's topic did inspire me to at least go out and investigate real world events near me. There is a blogging group, but they haven't met or had any activity in 6 months. There's a WordPress group, but I use Blogger- would that be a violation of some kind of etiquette? In any case, if you want to search out book related groups in your own area, http://www.meetup.com/ seems to be a good resource. Suggested search terms: book club, blogging or blogger, and WordPress.
Anyone have any other resources to find fellow members of the Book-Loving tribe in real life?
Yeah I haven't really been into an outside reading group or blogger group...it seems to me that it's easier to connect online...it's like a whole new world and it's much easier than in-person :)
ReplyDeleteI think part of the reason why it's easier reaching out by networking is that some of us are busy or shy or just don't know how to connect with in-person groups but getting online on our own time is totally easier...
I remember taking my dad to the store when he was visiting us. He was standing around deciding what kind of cereal to by- or something- got into a conversation with a guy. Found out they both sing karaoke and live in Hawaii (at least part time). All of a sudden my dad had a new friend- and he was in town for less than 24 hours. This is fairly typical of my dad. Me, I hadn't met a new friend in at least a year. Me, I go to the store, get my cart bumped into and then glared at by the person who did it.
DeleteI checked the meetups and found what I suspected. There are groups in Lansing, Ann Arbor and farther afield. There's nothing where I live and that's not surprising since we don't even have a new bookstore anymore. But it was interesting to find out about that site. I've been toying with the idea of starting something, trouble maker that I am! Thanks!
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