Silent reading parties Archives

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The Silent Book Club Boom

Back in 2016, I posted an article about Silent Reading Parties. No thanks to me, I’m sure, this idea has caught on in a big way. Healthline, as part of a feature on the social and cognitive benefits of reading, highlighted Silent Book Club, an organization that now has 1400 chapters and counting worldwide.

The idea is simple and genius. Get a group of friends together, everyone bring your own book in whatever format you wish (with headphones for audiobooks). Here’s how many break down the time:

30 minutes–people arrive, order drinks/food, share what they’re reading
60 minutes–quiet reading
30 minutes–optional socializing, or just keep reading

Groups can adjust the times to fit their needs. Most meet monthly.

It looks like a number of these are hosted by bookstores, often offering discounts on books people buy during these gatherings. Makes sense.

What also makes sense is the idea of reading in companionable silence without having your reading choices determined by a club. And its always fun to talk books with other bookworms. For those who don’t like book clubs but like to talk about books with others, this might be something to try. The Silent Book Club website includes a map to help you find a group near you as well as help starting a group of your own.

Five Articles Worth Reading

You don’t have to tell most readers the benefits of reading. But if you want to encourage others to take up the habit, “How Reading Can Help Reduce Stress and Anxiety” discusses the mental health benefits of reading.

Poetry and prayer have a connection going back to Israel’s Psalms and other Ancient Near East Literature. Ed Simon explores the close connection of prayer and poetry throughout literature in “Prayer is Poetry.”

Friends who have seen the Book of Kells describe it as one of the most beautiful books in the world. Plus, it is housed in the incredible Trinity College Library in Dublin. Open Culture offers a great introduction to this illuminated manuscript, including a six-plus minute video at “An Introduction to the Astonishing Book of Kells, the Iconic Illuminated Manuscript.”

From ancient manuscripts to this year’s books. NPR just posted its “Books We Love” feature for 2024 with 350 picks from their staff. In addition, you can access their choices going back to 2013!

Whether you like Taylor Swift or not, she has revolutionized the music industry, including re-recording much of her work, enhanced the fan base of the Kansas City Chiefs, and recently concluded her Eras tour, breaking concert attendance, gross income, and other records. Now, in publishing her own book on the tour, she’s changing the way some celebrities relate to publishers. The Atlantic has the story in “Taylor Swift Is a Perfect Example of How Publishing Is Changing.”

Quote of the Week

“Variety’s the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.”

This is one of those axioms that is part of our collective store of wisdom. But who said it? English poet and hymn writer William Cowper, who was born November 25, 1731.

Miscellaneous Musings

I was thrilled to learn today that a recording by two of my favorite artists is coming out this weekend. Phil Keaggy is an incredible guitarist from my hometown of Youngstown. Malcolm Guite is a contemporary poet, priest, and scholar with a marvelous English accent. They have combined talents with Guite reciting poetry and Keaggy providing guitar accompaniment in “Strings and Sonnets.” I wish I could recite poetry like Guite does!

Speaking of poetry, I’ve been reading Dana Gioia’s Meet Me At the Lighthouse. “Tinsel, Frankincense, and Fir” reminds me of the “ghosts” behind some of the ornaments we hang. I have to admit to finding things I like about Gioia’s work and ways I connect every time I read him!

Just finished Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, this year’s Booker Prize winner. While I think I’ve read better fiction in 2024, Harvey does capture something I’ve heard about before–seeing our planet from space is transformative–both its beauty and precarity. There is NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) footage online that gives some sense of what the fictional International Space Station astronauts and cosmonauts experience in Harvey’s work.

Next Week’s Reviews

Here’s what I expect to be reviewing next week:

Monday will be my monthly “Month in Reviews” post recapping my November reviews.

Tuesday: Agatha Christie’s One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Wednesday: Samantha Harvey’s Orbital

Thursday: Dana Gioia, Meet Me At the Lighthouse

Friday: Mike Cosper, The Church in Dark Times

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for November 17-23, 2024!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Silent reading party I always enjoy checking out the articles at Bookriot. It’s a younger crowd that are often interested in different books than I usually read, but they love reading and always are coming up with interesting ideas for readers or to encourage reading.

Recently, they ran an article on hosting silent reading parties. That sounded like an interesting idea. I notice that we often read alone, but not alone–for example, in a local Starbucks, or even the cafe’ of a local bookstore. And, if you can avoid the person who insists on talking loudly on their cell phone with a business client, or the conversation where someone is going through the excruciating details of a relationship breakup, it can be a good place to be around people, yet read.

Silent reading parties take this a step further. The idea is simply to find a comfortable place to gather a bunch of people for the express purpose of reading — silently. The location featured in the article is a brew pub in an old house with a parlor.

The article talks about friendly but clear ways to enforce quiet, such as business cards with “Shh!” printed on them to be handed to those who can’t resist being chatty. It suggests a maximum of two hours, letting people know when the time is up. Some non-distracting background music can be helpful to make it less awkward to be silent with others.

The fascinating thing to me was that many people really enjoyed being silent with others and having a break from “high-contact socializing.” It is also interesting to me that there is not necessarily a discussion of what people read afterwards, although I suspect some do this. How exceedingly rare it is to be silent with others around! I’ve been in some retreat settings where this has been so. The writer commented that this is almost “church-like.” I sighed because I find it is rare to sit silently in church without someone feeling they need to break the silence.

I wonder if this is a dimension of life we overlook, that these silent reading parties are re-discovering. We need silence, but this doesn’t always mean solitude. Sometimes we find great comfort in silence in the company of others. Whether it is communing with a book, our own thoughts, or God, we find it strangely comforting to do this at times without words with others who can share that silent communion.