Have you ever dreamed of going on a reading retreat? Check out this post for reading retreat ideas and discover how you can participate in one!
This past week was a whirlwind of excitement as I hosted my very first MomAdvice Reading Retreat.
I, honestly, still can’t believe that this actually happened.
The first time I uttered the words, “reading retreat,” I was met with a lot of confusion.
As soon as I began to explain my idea for this though, almost everyone said that they could use a retreat like this in their life.
Let’s be honest, it seems that there has been a retreat for everything including writing retreats, yoga retreats, retreat centers for wellness, and even social media retreats.
With all these types of retreats offered, I began to wonder why I couldn’t find a reading retreat for bookish people or an introvert retreat that catered to people like me.
Today I wanted to share some book club retreat ideas and strategies for how to host a retreat. More importantly, I would love to invite you to join the next one. The quickest way to stay in the loop is to join our book club and retreat mailing list. Please note, the retreat mailing list is separate from your weekly happy newsletter.
Should history repeat itself these spots go REALLY fast and that just might be one reason why I think the bookish retreat is going to be the next big thing for our community.
I could not have done it without these two ladies- thank you, Meg & Symbol!!!
Personally, I have felt like blogging is just not filling my cup the way it used to. I have missed the feelings of connectedness that we used to have through comments and interactions.
The book club has been my way of coping with these changes and figuring out how my path might look moving forward.
The idea for a reading retreat really was hatched when I read about retreats happening in other parts of the country. Although they were hosted much differently than mine, I began to brainstorm a different type of reading retreat that would build better connections within our book club community. Keep in mind, I began the research and planning in January to execute this in the summer.
We also surveyed our book club members to see if they were even interested in the retreat, what part of the country they were in, what the best price point would be, and also what months worked best.
Once that data was collected, I scouted midwest retreat rentals, set an attendee amount, and established an application process for these spots. I read through all of the responses and tried to gather a group that I thought would mesh well together, as well as support the most active members in our community.
Catering to introverts (not to say that ALL readers are introverts, but many are) helped me make the decision to keep the group more intimate.
Each of our attendees received a copy of, “The Masterpiece,” by Fiona Davis, for our discussion, in the mail.
Have you read it?
I am pretty sure that every person walked away with a brand new impression of the Grand Central Terminal. For example, not many of us knew that an art school was tucked away in this historic building or the woman who made history streamlining the interior design of the Studebaker.
You’ll have to read this one to get the scoop on these exciting times in history.
I also encouraged everyone to dig into, “In Sight of Stars,” so that we could have a great chat with this month’s author, Gae Polisner. It was so fun to chat with our author this month and to better understand her writing process.
As expected, Gae was amazing and we all loved being able to connect with her in this way. I am hoping that we can offer more chats like these in the future!
Out of Print shared these adorable book totes for our reading retreat.
Aren’t these the cutest? They even have a library card holder! I put my Cricut to work and made name tags for each of these bags so the ladies could pick these up on the way to their room.
Thank you, Out of Print, for making these bags so darn special!
I designed another custom shirt with Bonfire (you can view our book club shirt here too!) and had these camp shirts made with our retreat name and date on the back!
I wanted each of the retreat attendees to feel special and for this to feel like a true getaway experience so I requested the women share their favorite drinks, dietary restrictions, shirt sizing, and morning beverage choice before they arrived.
It was so fun to surprise them with a fridge full of their favorite things.
I also reached out to many authors and publishing houses to see if they had any books they might want to share with our retreat attendees. We had so many generous authors who shared their work with our group.
Want to see who shared their books? Here are a few pictures of what books the reading retreat attendees received. Thank you to ALL who donated!!
We spent the entire weekend doing loads of bookish things like talking about books, book swapping, movies based on books, and reading time.
I just loved coming into a room and seeing everyone curled up with their books and Kindles.
Is there anything better than being surrounded by YOUR people?
thank you to Best Hair Days With Carolyn for providing our hair care products for the event- what a treat!
These incredible women came from all over the United States and Canada to spend a weekend with me. I could not be more grateful.
On a personal (and selfish) level, it was an incredible experience to meet people who have been reading the site for years and years. I was so honored that they would make this trip to connect with me and with each other IN REAL LIFE.
We did our best to spoil all these special ladies with homemade meals and snacks (all day and all night long!), lots of wine, quiet time for reading, and EVERYTHING BOOKS.
Organizing a retreat came with some important lessons for the next gathering.
Here’s the thing, no one becomes an expert by doing something only once and I have lots to learn.
I do plan to extend the retreat by a day so people have a quiet day of reading when they arrive (and to hopefully weather those flight delays better), I have a better grasp of retreat expenses now that I have done this, and I need to continue working on solidifying great partnerships for our attendees for the future to keep the expenses down.
All in all, I couldn’t be prouder how this event turned out!
If you are interested in connecting with our book club, I’d love to have you!
What would you like to know about the MomAdvice Reading Retreat? I am happy to answer any questions!
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