My Weekend at a Reader Retreat

This past weekend I was supper lucky to attend a reader retreat in Thomasville, GA. The retreat was hosted by the bookstore The Bookshelf which I have been following and buying from for a while. I was supposed to go to this retreat in 2020 but as everything else it got cancelled. Two years later I was finally able to spend an amazing weekend with book lovers from all over the country. It was a weekend I’ll never forget. I wanted to share with you all my experience. I haven’t seen any other bookstores do this but if you have the opportunity to do something like this I definitely recommend it!

What is The Bookshelf and where is it?

The Bookshelf is an independent bookstore in downtown Tomasville, GA. It is about 4 hours south of Atlanta. The owner Annie B. Jones is amazing, she also reviews books on her Instagram account and has a podcast, From the front porch which is delightful. I find a lot of book recommendations from her and her podcast.

What do you do on a reader retreat?

I actually didn’t do a lot of reading. The bookshelf staff put together a lovely schedule for the weekend. It was flexible enough that you could do a lot of things or have more down time to read if you wanted. I really enjoyed everything they had planned for us. There was a lot of shopping in downtown Thomasville, which I loved! Here is a summary of what we did:

Friday Night – Happy Hour and Dinner at The Bookshelf

We started the weekend by checking in at the Marriott hotel where we were greeted with a welcome bag. Isn’t it so cute? It included a book hand picked by Annie, a reader retreat shirt, coupons to use during the weekend and lots of goodies.

Our first event was a happy hour to get to know everyone. After that we went to the bookstore for a “pen to plate dinner”. It was my first time at the bookstore and I was in awe. It was beautiful and the dinner was amazing. They decorated the table book themed obviously! They had a local chef prepare a five course meal using recipes from the cookbook Eating Out Loud by Eden Grinshpan. The chef gave us descriptions of all the dishes and any modifications from the recipe they made. The meals were Mediterranean inspired and they were all delicious!

Breakfast & Book Club with Annie

We all read the book This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub in order to have a book club discussion with Annie. I actually read the book and I think it was a great book for a group discussion. It is a book that makes you reflect about your life and it was also emotional at the end. Even though we were still kind of strangers at this point we had a great discussion!

Shopping & Lunch on our own in downtown Thomasville

After the book club discussion we had some free time to explore on our own. I enjoyed walking around downtown Thomasville and did a lot of shopping. I wasn’t expecting so many cute stores! For lunch I met up with one of the ladies in the retreat for a charcuterie board at Liam’s. It was delicious!

Fall Books with The Bookshelf Staff

Our next planned event was a discussion with The Bookshelf staff on their favorite upcoming releases for fall. They gave us a description of the books and why they loved them. We then had the option to pre-order the books from the bookstore. My TBR grew a lot!

Bookmark workshop

Up next we had a session to make our own bookmarks using yarn (not your traditional bookmark). I had seen these before on The Bookshelf website and was excited to be a little creative with mine. We got to pick our colors and they were supper easy to make.

Free time/dinner on our own

After that I went to the hotel and changed outfits (it was soooo hot in Thomasville, so I needed to freshen up). Then I had dinner at Sweetgrass (another charcuterie board!) because everyone kept recommending it. I want to go back to Thomasville so I can go eat there again!

After-hours Bookshelf shopping

Then finally I got to spend some time (without other shoppers) at the bookstore. I couldn’t resist and ended up buying 9 books! The store is so gorgeous and they have lots of sections of curated books by their staff. I had the opportunity of chatting with Annie and she recommended me two books that she thinks I’ll love based on what I described to her I’ve been loving to read this year. This was my favorite part of the entire weekend.

Life From the Front Porch podcast recording

I have been listening to the From the Front Porch podcast for years. It is my favorite book podcast where I get a lot of recommendations from Annie. We got the opportunity to be there for a live recording of the podcast with her cousin Ashley and fellow bookstagrammer Hunter. It was a fun topic and got even more book recommendations. You can listen to that episode of the podcast tomorrow Thursday August 18!

Drinks at Liam’s with the group

After that we all went for some drinks at Liam’s which is a great bar in downtown Thomasville. It was a great way to wrap up the weekend with new friends!

Sunday – Breakfast & last minute shopping at The Bookshelf

I was so sad the weekend was over but I had to go one more time to the bookstore! I bought a book that Annie recommended on the podcast and just took it all in one last time.

Overall, it was an amazing experience! I got to visit a bookstore I had been wanting to go for a while, met Annie (which I feel like we’re friends even though she doesn’t know me) bought lots of books and made some new bookish friends! The schedule allowed us to be as involved as we wanted which I appreciated. I hope you enjoy re-living this amazing weekend with me!