This has been a big week for us here at Silent Book Club. We announced the launch of three (!) new chapters in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Jacksonville, and we joined forces with Silent Reading Party PDX to connect book lovers in Portland, OR. 

And we're only just getting started. Our goal is to make Silent Book Club a global community, bringing readers together in cafés and bars all over the world. We believe in the power of books to transform a public space into a zone of tranquility. Where laptops and phones are replaced by paperbacks and ereaders. Where the ever-present pings of work email are silenced, if only for an hour or two. Where being alone together means engaging in a communal activity, not sacrificing real life relationships for the dopamine hit of social media. Where no one needs wifi.

Silent Book Club is about being present, rediscovering the restorative power of single-tasking, and carving out space in our busy lives to simply read for pleasure. Enough with the always-on. We choose off. We choose books.

We've been floored by the outpouring of enthusiasm for Silent Book Club. New SBC chapters are in the works for Seattle, Vancouver, San Diego, Honolulu, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Berlin, and Amsterdam. Stay tuned for dates and locations.

Ready to join us? We're here to help you start a Silent Book Club in your town. Anyone can do it, and everyone is welcome. Just drop us a line.

Read the announcement here, and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get event invites, book recommendations, and news delivered right to your inbox.

We're super excited to be teaming up with Read it Forward, an online community for readers created by Crown Publishing Group. Read it Forward publishes essays, book recommendations, interviews with authors, and more.

We kicked off our partnership with a story about how Silent Book Club might save your life, and once a month, we'll be sharing reading recommendations in their What We're Reading newsletter. You can find our first batch of book recs here, or sign up on Read it Forward to get the next installment delivered to your inbox. 

P.S. While you're poking around the site, don't miss their Book Club Appetizer podcast. The Spotify playlist they created for this episode is fierce.

Silent Book Club started with a couple of friends sitting at the bar of a little neighborhood bistro. We were both book lovers, and on that particular evening I was on a rant about book clubs. The pressure to finish the assigned reading. The discussion guides that read like essay questions from a high school English class. 

I read for pleasure. I love hanging out with friends who are book addicts like me, but, to quote Helen Ellis, I'm a grown-ass lady. I don't want to do homework. Wouldn't it be great, I mused, to have a book club where you could go to a bar with a book and a friend, order a glass of wine, and just read quietly? And with that, Silent Book Club was born.

On the last Monday of every month, we host meet ups in SF and NYC. But you don't have to live near an official chapter to join Silent Book Club. Everyone is welcome, and anyone can host a meet up. You just need a book, a bar, and a friend. Or, hey, maybe just a book, a cup of tea, and your PJs. Any time you carve out a quiet moment to read, you're following the tenets of Silent Book Club.

If you're interested in starting your own Silent Book Club chapter, we've gathered a few tips for you...

How to host a Silent Book Club

That's it! Put down the phone, pick up a book, and read, wine, repeat. Now, shhh. I'm reading.

— guinevere

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• Because you like books.
• And you like reading with friends.
• But you never can finish the assigned book club book on time.
• Because everyone in your last book club loved David Foster Wallace and Jonathan Franzen.
• And they made you feel bad for loving Rainbow Rowell.
• Because reading a book in a bar is better than swiping right.
• Plus, people will think you're an intellectual rather than a 30-something drinking alone.
• And that cute bartender will ask what you're reading.
• Because you like getting book recommendations from people you know.
• And you don't feel like cooking dinner and giving the kids a bath.
• Because books and wine prevent Alzheimer's. Or something. Maybe.
• Because you're sick of everyone basking in the glow of their phones.
• Because "Silent Book Club" sounds better than "drinking on a Monday."
• Because, let's face it, don't we all just go to book club for the wine?