(originally posted on our IG)

My heart is so full. I asked Honolulu if anyone wanted to sit down with strangers and just read, and ten people joined me for two hours. When we wrapped up, my favorite thing someone said was, “I didn’t think about work once.” PERFECT.

Our first group shot. Thanks for the photo, Baron!

Later, someone said, “I’m awkward in social situations, but everyone was so nice!”

Two people said they had wished we had @silentbookclub in this town. At least one said she was interested in organizing and hosting future meetups.

Two participants who had genre interests in common stayed and chatted — one has a podcast in the genre, and I think they chatted about that.

Our second group shot. Thanks again, Baron!

At least three of us have been (or still are) secondary English teachers. So we talked a little about that.

One person showed up early and said she had attended silent book clubs in Seattle, so she shared some of what worked well for her there.

I had a burger and a couple of beers from The Puka. Delicious and quite a deal. As you can see, I wasn’t kidding about the hippos.

People bounced around ideas for future meetups. The amazing proprietor at @poindextersbooks messaged me to talk about hosting events in her fantastic store. One of the two cofounders of the original Silent Book Club lives on this island and while she couldn’t make this meetup, she wants to join us in July.

Seriously: could I have asked for a better first meetup?

The table was large enough for our group. If anyone wants to sit at some other table, please feel free! We’ll still be together!

We took two group photos because people came and went — which is great! — and then we took group photos of the guests of honor: Gary D. Schmidt, Isaac Asimov, Alan Brennert, Mike Bockoven, Arkaday Martin, Ann Patchett, Joe Abercrombie, David Mitchell, Allison Marchetti, and Frank Abe, Tamiko Nimura, Ross Ishikawa, and Matt Sasaki.

We’ve got a couple more photos to share later this week. Thank you everyone for not thinking about work, for being so nice, and for loving books!

Next meetup is Thursday, July 11! We may have one sooner than that! Keep checking back!

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