The Silent Book Club

Introverts, book clubs, unplugged communities

I am, theoretically, the perfect candidate to join a book club given how much I read. I mean, what could be better than to sit with other avid readers and discuss books?

It turns out however not all book club experiences are quite as idyllic as one is lead to believe. Besides, me being me, things are never quite as straightforward as they may appear to normal people, especially when it comes to opinions about books.

Here is a little anecdote about my (lack of) experience with traditional book clubs, followed by a discovery about a different kind of book club, one which resonated deeply for an introvert like me.

Neighbourhood book clubs

One day many moons ago when my now adult kids were still in elementary school, a local mom organized a book club in her home. She put the invite out on Facebook and many neighbourhood moms went to check it out.

I thought about it for a minute but book club night conflicted with hockey and ringette practices, so I didn’t join.

I remained connected to the mom on Facebook and noticed how each month, she released a title of the book she wished to discuss at book club night the following month. Inevitably, it was a newly released, highly trending book from a popular bestseller list.

Hm… I thought. I don’t tend to follow tends, especially not in books.

Trending books

To be clear, I have nothing against trending books, but my reading interests usually lie elsewhere, outside of the realm of current mass consumption. If I do end up reading a book from a trending bestseller list, it almost always happens long after the buzz has passed.

Case in point:

I read Reframe by Scott Adams (August 2023) and Atomic Habits by James Clear (October 2018) long after they were replaced by other books on the bestseller lists. (Both are nonfiction). Another example is Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb, originally published in 2019. I read it in 2023. I also read Quiet by Susan Cain (actually, I listened to the audio-book) just this past month while building my backyard cabin. Quiet was released in 2012. Today is 2025.

On the fiction front, I don’t think I’ve ever read a just-released book immediately when it came out. I read The Seven Husband’s of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid in 2024; it came out in 2017.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo spent 78 weeks on the New York Times Paperback Trade Fiction list. The book’s popularity surged due to its rediscovery on platforms like TikTok. It continues to be a bestseller.

I’m currently reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig which was published in 2020.

The Midnight Library first appeared on the New York Times bestseller list on February 19, 2021, when it reached #3. It also topped the Sunday Times bestseller list. The book remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over 100 weeks.

I realize how effective social media can be in re-catapulting once-popular books; all I’m saying is I tend to wait until after they lost some of their buzz before I pick them up to read.

Socializing vs book discussions

Another thing I noticed about the neighbourhood mom-led book club was a comment made by another mom whom I often met on the walk to and from school drop-off and pick-up. She said she joined the book club and participated in the monthly meetings for a while but soon lost interest. I asked her why and she said the intention – to discuss the book – often fizzed out and was replaced by banter and chatter not long after the sessions began. Seems the moms enjoyed talking about the book for maybe five minutes, but for the rest of the evening, new topics emerged: relationships, sex and gossip, which is unsurprising given the accompaniment of cocktails and wine.

My walking mom-friend wasn’t an introvert (like me), but I got the impression she got tired of the gossip and inevitable silliness and departed the club. It reinforced my decision that this type of club was exactly right for the social moms, but not for introverts like me who were less interested in the latest celebrity hype or local scandal and more about the actual book in question. Besides, most of the book titles they picked didn’t appeal to me much anyway, and so I continued to read my books in the privacy of my own home by myself (and sometimes wrote about them to my online communities, mostly via this blog or my Substack).

I just so happen to write about reading and writing on my last Substack post in which I mention a new (to me) author. Check out Beyond Sequential Storytelling where I give credit to Abigail Thomas, a talented 80-something New Yorker who resides in Woodstock, for inspiring me.

Where do I get my reading ideas from?

As mentioned, I don’t typically scan bestseller lists, although I do scan social media which mention these lists occasionally. More often, however, I get my book ideas from other sources.

Bloggers or writers (link love)

There are several places where I pick up interesting titles beside the usual word of mouth with friends or at family gatherings. One place is from the blogging community. An avid reader from my blogging community blogs weekly about books. She participates in numerous reading challenges, often themed ones, and regularly expands into international, translated books. With every weekly blog post of hers, I make a note of another cool book she read and liked or sometimes didn’t like (note: she never gives away spoilers, which is key). Most recently, she mentioned Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer which I read and quickly categorized as one of my favourites.

Fiction books

Another place I get book ideas from is from books, especially fiction. For instance, Robert B. Parker’s immensely popular Spenser series (first book came out in 1973, last completed book before his death was published in 2011) often mentioned authors or books in the stories. It seems the author was a well-read individual, so he made his protagonists the same.

The protagonists in the Spenser series consist of Boston private eye aka gumshoe Spenser and his thuggish sidekick Hawk, both of whom are well-read and intelligent. The author has his characters read books while on stake-outs, during down-time, in dialogue with love interests or while driving long distances to faraway places. Often, the discussions include captivating banter; argumentative in nature, intriguing enough to follow the often conflicting perspectives and always laugh-out-loud funny.

I’m bookish (or weird) enough to make a note if one of their quotes piques my interest, then look up the book or author in question in my Libby app. It is with this method where I discover new books.

Of course, there are other places which name books or authors, but those two are probably the main sources where I get my book recommendations from.

Which leads me back to the title of this article.

The Silent Book Club

There is such a thing as a silent book club, did you know that? This book club was designed for introverts (!) whose concept, incidentally, departs from the traditional book club.

Here’s a cool map that shows you how popular the Silent Book Club has become worldwide.

You can search for a chapter located near you.

Not a library

At first, I thought a silent book club was kind of like a library, but they differ slightly.

A silent book club is a social gathering focused on silent, individual reading. A library is a public space for borrowing and accessing books.

With an emphasis on community and shared reading without assigned books or encouraged verbal discussions, silent book clubs are seemingly perfect for introverts who sometimes want to get out of the house and be around people but not be singled out to talk to a group.

There’s a virtual meetup option where you can discuss books with other Silent Book Club participants.

I’m surprised I haven’t heard of this phenomenon until now. This is another tribute that occasionally, social media throws interesting content my way (and I let it, which is why I’m writing about silent book clubs today).

Related: offline communities

While searching online for more content about silent book clubs, I was reminded of unplugged communities which I have also seen in my feed. The first one I came across was Amsterdam’s offline community (seen on Instagram). People enter a church-like space (or any other space, it varies) without any devices but with pillows and mats, craft supplies or paint, yarn and crochet hooks or knitting needles, and books and magazines. The point is to be completely unplugged and to connect with others the old-fashioned way.

The movement is spreading through Europe at lightning speed. I see many prominent cities pop up: Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris and Barcelona to name but a few.

Full Disclosure:

One big (but unfortunate) deterrent about these social places for me is the deploring infrastructure and traffic conditions in Toronto which are enough to make me want to curl up in my backyard cabin and cry bitter tears. My daughter’s work place is 9 km (5.6 miles) from the house and it took us 55 minutes to get there. Why? Because they were digging a hole in the right lane but closed two lanes, making the three-lane Lakeshore a single bottleneck lane. The usual 15-minute trip took almost an hour one way, and I still had to get home after that. Why would anyone want to go anywhere in this town? And no, there is no bus line to her work. That’s the other thing about this city; the transit system is ineffectually dreadful.

But I digress. Sorry for the rant. I know many metropolitan cities struggle with the same issues.

Back to the book topic – unplugging and reading the old-fashioned way with a book in hand – is gaining momentum across the globe, which isn’t exactly surprising given the world is a massive dumpster fire these days. It might be best to exercise limited and only essential online time, and exercising a very intentional, focused way of scrolling if you can’t help yourself.

I do this myself. It’s not hard but takes a little practice to get into the habit.

So, now it’s your turn.

• What do you think about The Silent Book Club concept?

• Do you like to venture out and read in community spaces, even if it is a regular library?

• What is your general feeling about book clubs in general?

Thank you for reading my article today. This article is cross-posted to my personal blog on my website.