(Movable Type is tomorrow night at Vermillion, starting at 7 pm. It's free.)

Sometimes an idea is so simple, it's hard to explain. For about a year now, the Movable Type Mixer has been happening on a quarterly basis at Vermillion. There's no cover charge. There's no public speaking, or trust exercises, or speed dating. There's only one requirement: Bring the book you're reading and be ready to talk about it. That's it. You almost want there to be an extra hook, but there isn't one. Simple.

And fun, too: Past Movable Types have spawned conversations between obsessive five-book-a-week readers, poets, novelists, academics, and folks who manage to get through one book a year. I've talked with nice people about Kafka and Stephen King and a memoir about a peculiar cat and urban planning, and I felt a wave of euphoria when I saw a woman carrying a beautiful new edition of Jim Dodge's bighearted, bizarre novella Fup. It's practically impossible to have a bad time.

Movable Type founder Amy Levenson has worked in international publishing for nine years, and she believes books are the one topic that can pump all the awkwardness out of a stiff social situation. She's got a contagious laugh, and she hosts the mixers with admirable ease, introducing strangers and launching conversations fearlessly...

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