Spotlight: SBC Taipei Subway Takeover

Silent Book Club Taipei celebrated its 2nd anniversary in September. We caught up with the founder and host Dabina, who shared her most memorable recent meetup...

In August, we celebrated Book Lovers Day in a special way. Usually, the monthly gathering is held at a cafe, and it entails 30 minutes of socializing, an hour of silent reading time, followed by 30 minutes talking about various books that the members brought with them as well as an optional group photo time.

 

However, on that Saturday, twenty-one members read quietly inside the subway train from one terminal stop to another, while keeping the dress code of white top and sunglasses. During the subway ride, other passengers looked intrigued and even a little bit confused. This was not a surprising reaction since people usually listen to music, play mobile games, or are on their phones when commuting. In fact, we picked the subway as the venue for our August gathering for that same reason – to encourage and remind passengers to read more instead of staring at their phones all day. 

After about an hour of silent reading time, by the second to the last subway stop, the members turned to their partners beside them to chat about their books. At the final station, members gathered to share with the bigger group some of the books that they were reading. This was followed up by our now-tradition of creating a “book mountain” and taking group photos their way (i.e. one with books covering the members’ faces, and another one showing their faces).

Both new and returning members not only had a lot of fun reading but many of them made new friends – some of them even went to get some food together afterwards! This was not the first time that the SBC Taipei Chapter has ventured out to locations beyond cafes: they have read in parks, a museum, and now the subway. In September, we celebrated our second anniversary, and who knows what other adventures we will go on next?