When you see people reading books in a bar or in a cafe or on the bus, do you have a nearly irrepressible urge to see if you can peep the spine/ask that person what they’re reading/maybe talk about it if you’ve read the book, too/wonder if that person wants to know what you’re reading/feel so great that people are actually reading because sometimes you feel like the only one, but then you don’t actually do anything because (1) that person is probably just trying to relax with their book and (2) you want to get back to reading your book anyway?
If your answer to that is “more or less, yeah, sort of,” then I’d suggest heading on down to the Hideout at 7:30 p.m. tonight. The art bar will be hosting Moveable Type’s Literary Mixer, a quarterly gathering of 30 to 60 bookish types who absolutely want you to come up and ask them what they’re reading. It’s free and open to anyone who’s walking around with a book. Kindles and other manner of non-paper book-reading devices are welcome.
I like this idea. Seems like a good way for a person to meet others outside their immediate friend group, and maybe feel as if they’re taking command of their social life in a way that allows them to unleash the confident and charming person who’s been hiding behind their bespectacled and be-cardiganed force field of fear!
Or maybe it’s just a good opportunity to get drunk and accidentally talk about Don DeLillo too much with people might actually care?
As with all mixers, of course, there’s also the possibility of romance! I called founder Amy Levenson, and she said one of the attendees brought someone to the mixer and they had such a good time that they stayed together for a year. That’s eight months longer than your last relationship, right?
No matter what happens, you’ll be drinkin’ and reading for a good cause. Literacy Source, a nonprofit that specializes in adult literacy, receives a small portion of the bar. Some representatives from the organization will be there to hand out pamphlets and answer any questions you might have, but Levenson says there’s no pressure to donate, and that it’s not a requirement for coming to the event.
And since the event is at the Hideout, if you get bored talking about books, you can start talking about the greatness of the woman-and-peaches painting, or the intensity of that masturbation painting. Book people are into all that, too.
