Book Exchange Success!

Happy Thursday!

So today I hosted the book exchange that I had been planning all month! While there were, admittedly, some ups and downs of last minute planning last night and this morning, I think it all went very smoothly, and we had a blast! I’m gonna share a little bit of what I did so you can see how great it was, but also so you can get some ideas if you would like to do one of your own. 🙂

I decided to do it small scale, and only invited a handful of my bookworm friends. For invites, I made bookmarks and wrote the information on the back, then laminated them and handed them out to the anticipated guests.

I did it on a Thursday (today) at 11 a.m., and kept the menu simple:  Creme scones, cheese and crackers, fruit, and punch to drink. For dessert: ratafia cakes… This was a first-time recipe for me. I found it in my “Dinner with Mr. Darcy” cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/Dinner-Mr-Darcy-Recipes-Inspired/dp/1782490566).  And, of course, I had coffee and hot tea available. 🙂

As you can see in the picture above, I had my Ipod hooked up to speakers so we could enjoy some background music. Frank Sinatra radio on Pandora, obviously.

I had everyone bring a wrapped book to exchange (new or used) and we did it “dirty santa” style, so everyone ended up with one that was new to them. Since it isn’t Christmas, we concluded that the game should be called “Book Thief”. 😉 I ended up with the Trophy Case Trilogy by George Bryan Polivka, which came highly recommended by my friend, Josh.

After we ate and exchanged our books, we played “Book Title Charades”. Everyone wrote down book titles and they all went into a box. On your turn, you picked a title at random and had to act it out while the others attempted to guess the book. It was a total success! We all had our turn going up and looking absolutely ridiculous while creating laughter all around that made it all worth it. I wish I had gotten pictures!

I wanted a way to thank everyone for coming and being a part, so I put together some cute gift bags for everyone. They each had a small notebook, sour gummy worms (“bookworms”) in bags that I made from notebook paper (http://www.whitegunpowder.com/crafts-diy/diy-valentine-treat-bags/), and a quote card.

I bought most of the notebooks, but I was short a couple, so I made some myself.

All in all, I was extremely happy with the outcome! A big thanks to Pinterest for providing endless inspiration, to my friends for coming, and to the books and authors that keep me going every day!  It was a fun day of baking, decorating, and waiting for the plumber to turn the water back on (did I forget to mention the plumber thing? Yeah…). Also, it was the kick-off of my new book club, The Literary Society of Mt. Airy, which will now begin meeting the first Monday of every month. 🙂 Thanks for reading!

~Alyssa ❤