For a couple years while I was in college, I worked at Bath and Body Works as a sales associate. Listen, during the holidays that place was (and still is) a mad house! Our lines would go through the entire store out into the mall. One way we tried to make things easier or maybe more "customizeable" for our customers was to encourage them to make their own gift baskets. 

We would have empty baskets or cute containers with "grass" or straw in the bottom and the customers would mix and match their favorite scents (we called them flavors then) and products and put them inside the baskets to create the perfect gift. Then we would put Cellophane wrapping around them and secure it all with our signature BBW ribbon. We called them CYOBs (create your own baskets). It was funny because not all the customers were as excited about the CYOBS as we were. Some wanted us to do it all for them--and we would sometimes, because we were awesome. But basically they were just ruining the whole idea all together!

The point of this was to help them think outside what was prepackaged and limited to something they could customize and expand on to take full advantage of all our aromatic and skin pampering options. In this post I took the inspiration behind the CYOBs and applied it to help you create the perfect book scene where you live.

If you are like me and occasionally catch yourself drooling over the awesome bookish scene in some of the major cities, especially New York, but live light years away from all the action, I hope this post will motivate you to CYOBS (create your own book scene).

Everyone can't live and work in New York, but you don't have to to have that warm and welcoming, bustling and buzzing literary world right where you live. From industry events to meetups and workshops, or other bookish things, you can have what you want right where you live. With a little research and careful planning, you will not have to relocate to immerse yourself in the literary world. Here's how:

If you live in a teeny-tiny town

  1. Locate the closest big city in proximity to where you currently live.
  2. Visit their "City of..." website.
  3. Make note of their libraries, universities, museums, and historical places (the websites for these are usually there as well).
  4. That city may list their calendar of events in a tab you can access from the home page.
  5. Go a step further and check the calendar of events or special events pages for individual places (library, historical landmark, and museum) and see what kinds of literary happenings they offer throughout the year.
  6. Get your calendar out and mark the ones you'd like to attend (if you're like me, you'll add in some art exhibits, jazz concerts, and plant sales at the botanical gardens too).

If you live in a mid-size to large metro area

(Some of this may be accessible in your teeny-tiny town too)

  1. Find out what kind of author events, lectures, or writer groups are offered through your local library system.
  2. Connect with colleges and universities that sometimes host amazing literary series and book festivals.
  3. Attend local (or not-too-far away) writers conferences and trade shows.
  4. Check some of the websites for the quaint mom-and-pop bookstores in your area who may be hosting special author or book events. The large chain bookstores also have cool things to go to with the whole family even--signings/readings of some interesting authors, juice-and-jammies story readings for the kiddies (Barnes and Noble used to do this), writing groups and workshops.
  5. Find a quaint used bookstore, visit often, and get to know the owners. That's just cool on its own.
  6. Attend book launch parties hosted by friends or friends of friends who just published a book.
  7. Find out when your favorite authors will be speaking in town or your closest neighboring city. An hour's drive may be worth the months of inspiration these talks can give.

This is what keeps my book-loving self loving living in Central Florida. I can live the best of both worlds: fun in the sun and awesome cultural events that feed my artsy soul. You can see how I get my book swag on in the Orlando area by clicking

here

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What are some ways you stay involved and inspired in the book scene where you live?

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