I’ve gotten used to the funny looks people give me when I mention that I’m going to a Silent Book Club meeting. After all, isn’t discussing what you’re reading the whole point of a book club? So what is Silent Book Club, and what’s the point?
With Silent Book Club (SBC), there’s no assigned reading. You just show up with a book of your choice and read. Two San Francisco-based friends — Guinevere de la Mare and Laura Gluhanich — got the idea for Silent Book Club in 2012. For them, traditional book clubs, with the scramble to finish the assigned book, made reading feel like homework. So, they decided to meet at a neighborhood wine bar and just read together.
In 2015, they officially launched Silent Book Club as an organization with a mission to unite a global community of book lovers. Today, SBC has 2,000 chapters in more than 60 countries. More than a million members gather in person or online simply to read together and swap stories…