I love books. I love reading. My favorite way to dive into a new book is curled up in a comfy chair on a rainy day with my dog cuddling me while I sip tea.

Like many of us who self identify as bookish, book worms, avoid readers, bibliophiles, or any other of the myriad of terms for us, I am at heart am introvert. I spend a portion of my day working at a hip Brooklyn coffeeshop, taking people’s orders and making small talk in the hopes of better tips – because let’s be completely honest with ourselves. Not to say I haven’t made it passed small talk with some of them into something resembling a friendship, but it takes a lot of effort and energy for me to be that level of on for do long. I come home from a 9 and a half hour shift and just want to sleep. To recharge my batteries for the next social interaction.

Given that, it must be no surprise that going to BookCon today is a big event for me. A big, very daunting, event that while on one hand I am thrilled to be a part of, but on the other I am completely terrified of the myriad ways I will have to act the part of an extrovert.

But, I promised a love story. And this really is a love story. Today I’m going to get to be surrounded by fellow book fiends. All of us in and out of our element. Authors, publishers, bloggers, artists, craftspeople – everyone there to celebrate a love of book and reading. Enough of us to warrant the event being at the Javits, which despite being awful is the home to New York ComicCon as well. It’s a beautiful reminder that we matter. Us book nerds have a place, and a very large one, in the world.

So, let’s all be introverts (and ambiverts and extroverts) together!