It’s safe to say that Book Con 2018 was one of the best weekends of my life, but do you want to know a secret? It had nothing to do with the books and everything to do with the people. Here’s a recap of what our weekend looked like!
Friday
On Friday, Amy of @literaryjo, arrived from Missouri! Amy was one of my first friends in this happy corner of the internet, but we had never met in person before Friday. Safe to say, that was never a concern. Within the first hour of her being here, I felt like we had known each other for forever.
Amy and I bopped to Queens to check out the always beautiful Book Culture Long Island City where I bought one of their “blind dates with a book” and she picked up The Bell Jar. Then we headed back to Manhattan for tacos & margs on the Upper West Side with some of my friends!
Saturday
We woke up to what was forecasted to be a rainy day and found it was sunny at 80 degrees – we were off to a great start. Amy and I only purchased Book Con tickets for Saturday, so we woke up ready and raring to go. Along with my roommate, Kyle, we met up with the lovely Heather of @mlleboaz.bibliophile for a typical NYC breakfast at our local diner. Then we were off to the Javits Center!
Book Con is fascinating. This was my first year attending and I was surprised by just how many lines there are. One could easily spend their entire day waiting in lines for ARCs, author autographs, panels, and more. A few of our friends waited in a line to get a ticket to wait in another line. That wasn’t exactly our speed, so we instead explored the different booths and looked for our friends!
In the afternoon, some of the Penguin Random House imprints hosted a bookstagram meet up, bringing together some of my favorite bookstagrammers, including Katharine (@kathareads), Katie (@thebooklyclub), Simone (@simoneandherbooks), Casey (@casebounder), Anthony (@thealchemyofbooks), Meghan (@book.hang.o.ver), Renée (@somekindofalibrary), and more!
After that, our squad agreed we’d had our fill of the convention center, but not of each other. We enjoyed the summer night, filled with pizza, wine, music, and friends. Shockingly, there was not a book in sight for the rest of the day.
Sunday
Book Con might have ended for us, but the bookish adventures were still rolling. Amy and Heather joined me for their first class at soulcycle, my one true addiction. Seriously, if you haven’t tried it, you’ve got to!
Then we headed to Kiehls for their Book of the Month pop up collaboration. We each got a free book from this month’s selections and talked to one of their lovely team members!
Off we went to Brooklyn, to show Amy some of my favorite independent bookstores Books Are Magic (where we ran into DAVID SEDARIS!) and the new branch of McNally Jackson in Williamsburg! After that, we needed to sit. Our legs were begging for a break. Kyle, Casey, Anthony, Amy and I holed up in Radegast Hall and Biergarten in Williamsburg. The most remarkable thing about this group of bookworms is how instantly comfortable I’ve felt among all of them. I found myself thinking later that I felt I had years of friendship backing up this weekend.
Kyle and I capped the weekend off by showing Amy all of our favorite Hailee Steinfeld music videos (obviously).
This weekend made me grateful for how full this city is of book lovers, for how thoughtful and kind those book lovers are, and for this corner of the internet for bringing us all together. It was a whirlwind of a weekend (I didn’t read a single page – that’s how busy we were) and I wouldn’t have changed a single minute.
nyc book girl 