(Filigranes Librarie, where we meet for lunch)

Today, Armchair BEA is all about Book Blogging Relationships.

Books have led me to some of my most rewarding “real life” friendships. I’ve mentioned before I was part of the Bookcrossing movement, which I joined in 2002 when the Portuguese community was still tinny. Every single one of our early meet-ups had an extraordinary energy. Clearly none of us was used to meeting other people who loved books as much as we did and (great bonus) read in English. Six of us in particular began a friendship that has now gone far beyond BC and is still surprisingly strong.

Something very similar happened when I met Joanna from It’s all about me (time). She is, to my knowledge, the only book blogger in Brussels and we hit it off straight away when we first met last October. This time the impact was not so much about the books, but about meeting someone who actually knew what I was talking about when I mentioned the RIP Challenge or Reading in Color. As Joanna wrote in her blog, it was “as if my blogging didn’t properly exist before and now that whole world belongs to reality” and I couldn’t put it better.

Since then it’s rare that a week goes by without us having lunch together and we also often meet during the weekend. I’ve had the honor to be part of the select group of friends and family she invited to her civil wedding and will also be at her upcoming Handfasting ceremony.

I’ve never met any other blogger in person, but if this first experience is any indication, I think starting a book blog was the beginning of several beautiful friendships.