A note from the founders: We created Silent Book Club to be a welcoming and inclusive community for readers. As a platform, Silent Book Club offers an opportunity to create the space and experience members have when they join the group. That's a responsibility we don't take lightly.

When we launched the Silent Book Club website in 2016, we joked that our mission was to fill every bar in the country with readers. We had no idea that we should have set our sights higher. Continents higher.

Book lovers now gather in 29 countries around the world to read together in public, and new chapters join the club every week. This month, we welcomed our 200th chapter to the club! 

We're thrilled to announce a new fall lineup for Silent Book Club! From Michigan to Florida and California to New York, introvert happy hours are sweeping the nation.

When we started Silent Book Club, our vision was to create a movement founded on the principle that real-life connections matter more than ever in today's digital world. Our social lives are governed by algorithms, texting has replaced the sound of a human voice, and email crawls into bed with us at night. Too rarely do we take the time to disconnect, to carve a few hours out of the day to sit quietly and not work. 

With Silent Book Club, we wanted to lower the bar on book clubs. No assigned reading, no discussion guides, no pretty plated snacks or Pinterest potlucks. Just a bunch of like-minded book lovers doing what we do best: reading.

Since January, Silent Book Club has expanded to 15 cities (and counting). Our monthly meetups are hosted entirely by volunteers, and more than 2,000 members have joined the club. And we're growing fast. It turns out that reading with friends is catching. We couldn't be more delighted.

Join us at one of our upcoming meetups, or send us a note if you'd like to start a new chapter in your town. It's easy! 

Bring a book, bring a friend, and just read.

Monday, September 26
San Francisco, CA
New York, NY
Oakland, CA
Sacramento, CA
Phoenix, AZ (in partnership with Changing Hands Bookstore)
Austin, TX
Lansing, MI
Des Moines, IA
Manhattan, KS (Weds, 9/28, with Manhattan Public Library)

New in October:
Columbus, OH
Jacksonville, FL (with Jacksonville Public Library)
Birmingham, AL
San Jose, CA
Boston, MA

When I saw this post from Rainbow Rowell asking readers to help defend her book, Eleanor & Park, from censorship, I was surprised. My first reaction was, "Wait, they still do that?" And during Banned Books Week, of all times? Of course this was naive, and once I thought more about it I realized that when I think about banned books, I always frame it historically in my mind. Catcher in the Rye, Brave New World, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, Go Ask Alice—these titles always appear on lists of banned books, and somehow that made it easy for me to dismiss this kind of censorship as a thing of the past.

When I stop to think about it, though, I can remember religious groups being up in arms about Harry Potter because MAGIC, and parents getting riled up about John Green because OMG TEENS AND SEX. I rolled my eyes over the outrage surrounding Twilight because THE OCCULT. Really? We're worried about our kids becoming sparkly vampires? Come on, they're joking, right?

I owe librarians and authors an apology. I haven't been taking them seriously enough in their fight to protect our right to read. I've spent most of my career making books and getting them into the hands of as many readers as possible. Books are my passion. It's more than what I DO, it's who I am. Until today, Banned Books Week for me has been an endcap at a bookstore, a poster at my library, and a hashtag on Twitter. I didn't realize there was anything I could—or should—do about it.

But I can, and you can, too. We can email the National Coalition on Censorship and help them defend Eleanor & Park, and every other book on the list. They have an email address: ncac@ncac.org. They use testimonials from readers to mount their defense of challenged books. If there's ever been a time to stand up for diversity, and tolerance, and minority voices, it is now. I encourage you to read Rainbow Rowell's post. It opened my eyes and made me realize that I am accountable for my privilege to read.

—guinevere