Your cart
Close Alternative Icon
Down Arrow Icon
Bag Icon

Silent Book Club in the News

For press inquiries, contact us at hello@silentbook.club

 

The Wall Street Journal, 11/7/23
Tired of the rules of traditional reading groups, more people are joining rebel versions. ‘I will not read a book that other people say you have to read.’

 

Women's Wear Daily, 9/2/23
Whether it's dance parties, book clubs, national parks or hotel stays, thousands are seeking a certain amount of serenity and some elbow room off-the-clock.

 

FT LogoYou’re never alone with a book
Financial Times, 7/26/23
Reading in public can be a surprisingly social activity. If you're in search of companionable solitude while reading, no matter the location, it might be time to discover the pleasures of Silent Book Club. 

 

Unlike a regular book club where everyone reads the same book, silent book clubs have no assigned reading. Everyone brings their own book of choice. Fiction and non-fiction are both welcome, and they all read together in a quiet space.

 

Reader's Digest logo
Reader's Digest, 11/23/21
Picture this: You’re curled up next to the fireplace in a hotel lobby, a book in one hand and a glass of wine or mug of tea in the other. Sound like utter perfection? Then the Silent Book Club is for you.

 

Turn the page podcast logo
Syosset Public Library, 03/18/21
We caught up with Guinevere de la Mare, co-founder of Silent Book Club to chat about the origin story of Silent Book Club, and how the pandemic has changed the initiative in ways unexpected.

 

Book Riot logo
Book Riot, 03/04/21
For something a little different, try the Silent Book Club. In the Before Times, I attended sessions fairly regularly in San Francisco and enjoyed it thoroughly. There is no assigned/suggested reading; members simply congregate and read quietly, with no phones or chitchat, for an hour. 

 

If Lost Start Here logo
If Lost Start Here, 1/27/21
We recently discussed with co-founder Laura Gluhanich all the ways that Silent Book Club offers community and a space to unplug, both vital to our mental health and emotional wellbeing as we negotiate these uncertain times.

 

Suitcase Mag, 11/12/20 
Small talk? No thanks. Instead, its 260-plus groups - or "chapters" - gather across more than 30 countries simply to read silently in the company of others. Chitchat only happens if you want it to. Check online to find virtual meet-ups hosted from the US, Canada, South Korea, Germany and beyond. 

 

TOKION logo
TOKION, 10/24/20
There is a breath of fresh air blowing through book clubs, which have been a traditional type of community in the United States. It is coming from silent book clubs, which allow participants to enjoy solo activities and reading at the same time.

 

The Guardian logo
The Guardian, 10/12/20
From a group where no one speaks, to an all-male club for romance novels, we speak to reading groups finding new members online during the pandemic.

 

The New York Times logo
Find a Popular Virtual Book Club
The New York Times, 8/13/2020
One activity that the pandemic hasn’t interrupted? Reading. If you’re looking to join a well-established virtual book club, for community or structure, here are a few places to start.

  

Get Together podcast logo
A silent book club: how a “happy hour for introverts” spread around the world
Get Together (podcast) by People & Company, 6/22/2020
Silent Book Club offers a space to dispense the small talk, a relief to many introverts. In our conversation with Laura Gluhanich, the co-founder of Silent Book Club, we dive into the importance of creating a welcoming space in all senses of the word, both physically and online.

 

LA Times logo

The Silent Book Club, a global meet-up for introverts, now connects them remotely
Los Angeles Times, 4/10/2020
Silent book clubs have sought to do away with everything irksome about book clubs while retaining the sense of community, the love of books and in some cases the alcohol. The “silent” part refers only to the dedicated reading time (usually an hour). There’s conversation — a sharing of notes on individual reads rather than one assigned book — at beginning and end of each meeting. Or, in the past several weeks, a virtual meeting.

psychology today
Say Less, Feel More: The New Communication Minimalism
Psychology Today, 1/27/20
From hieroglyphs to emoji, non-verbal means of communication have been used for millennia, but a new slate of products and services are now taking non-verbal to the extreme with a focus on fostering intimacy.

 

SF GateHow two women quietly reading books in an SF bar started an introvert revolution
SF Gate, 1/7/20
Silent Book Club, otherwise known as "Introvert Happy Hour," started in San Francisco in 2012 with two friends reading together in a bar. Now, it has grown to 180 chapters across the world in 20 different countries.

 

Shush goes the book club 
The Times of India, 10/10/19 
Imagine being at a bar where you are served a glass of red wine along with a book. Or a café where you sample the latest Tom Clancy thriller while sipping a hot cappuccino.Sounds too good to be true? Welcome to the ‘silent’ book club.

 

Sssh . . . book clubs ditch discussions for complete silence 
The Times UK, 8/22/2019 
It’s a book club, but not as we know it. Members arrive with their carefully chosen tome, turn to a page and . . . just read. They don’t discuss the plot or characters and they certainly don’t serve drinks or supper to a roomful of bibliophiles.

 

A Novel Concept: Silent Book Clubs Offer Introverts A Space to Socialize 
NPR, 8/12/2019 
Individuals from all walks of life join together at Silent Book Clubs around the world to socialize, meet new people and trade book recommendations. When the bell rings, it's reading time, and people can read whatever they like, as long as it's in silence.

  

Shelf Help
Women's Health, July/August 2019 (print edition only) 
New rule: Burying your nose is a good read is the healthiest thing you can do while sitting down. Tell your friends you'll meet them for yoga...but first, Kafka.

 

Introverted bookworms and a novel idea 
CBC Radio, 5/22/2019 
Afternoon Drive host Chris dela Torre finds out why Canadians are organizing Silent Book Clubs with a co-founder of the club, Guinevere (Harrison) de la Mare.

  

Toronto's Silent Book Club offers an alternative for introverted bookworms 
CBC, 3/17/2019 
Vicki Ziegler has never been on the same page with traditional book club members. The stresses associated with meetings — hosting, finishing a book on time and sharing reviews on the chosen title with others — discouraged the Toronto bookworm from joining a club. "It's a bit of a monoculture — everybody's reading the same book and talking about just one book," she told CBC Toronto.

 

How reading can make you happier and less stressed and depressed 
South China Morning Post, 3/11/2019 
Research has found that those who read regularly have higher levels of self-esteem and were better at coping with challenges. Readers says there is a sense of accomplishment, pride and self-worth when finishing a book. 

 

Silent Book Club Is SoulCycle for Shy People 
IndyWeek, 3/6/2019 
I love reading, and I hate sharing in small-group settings. A traditional book club, where you discuss an assigned book, merges the joy of literacy with the specter of clammy conversation. For me, it holds no appeal.  

 

6 Groups That Might Convince You to Join a Book Club
O, Oprah Magazine, 1/9/2019 
People sometimes ask me, “Why would I leave my house to read?” I say: Sometimes you want to share the same space with like-minded people, to be in the world but carving out time for you. 

 

Witty banter optional: The no-pressure, no-homework book club
The Christian Science Monitor, 12/17/2018
The solitary act of reading becomes more social – and maybe a little more competitive – at a typical book club. Here’s a middle-ground idea for the shy or introverted and homework-averse.

 

Reading in Tandem: Silent Book Club is making noise in Birmingham
b-metro, 4/2/2018
The internet has really done a number on the social bonds that hold society together. Today you have to make an effort to engage with people face to face. We should be doing everything we can to encourage folks to hang out in real life. Silent Book Club is a non-threatening way for a lot of people to do that.

 

Connections through reading and coffee
The Free Press, 3/26/2018
Reading has become my primary way to stay sane during this unsettling time when the reigning administration is so incredibly toxic, and SBC is this incredible connection to people who are so thoughtful and aware.

 

Silent Book Clubs are like 'cocktail hour for introverts'
Essential Baby, 1/15/2018
A common lamentation of avid readers, like me and my colleague, is that along with hot cups of coffee and sleep-ins, motherhood also means saying goodbye to long afternoons curled up with a novel, as the relentless demands of caring for young children take priority. But, as it turns out, there might be a solution.

 

Silent Book Club gathers primarily to read own selections, not discuss
The Columbus Dispatch, 11/27/2017
Unlike virtually every other book club — whether of the wine-and-cheese variety or the deeply intellectual — the Silent Book Club involves no “homework,” no discussion questions and no pressure to sound intelligent. Instead, club participants gather on the second Tuesday of the month to read selections of their own choosing by themselves. 

 

How the Silent Book Club gave me back my reading life
Lit Hub, 8/16/17
The premise for this book club is simple. It’s a gathering of people who go out to a public space for the purpose of reading together. Unlike traditional book clubs, there are no mandatory reading selections, and nobody facilitates a discussion. Think of it as cocktail hour for introverts.

 

Why Silent Reading Club is quietly popular among book readers in LA and Orange County
Los Angeles Daily News, 7/7/2017
Silent reading time, that familiar school activity in so many classrooms, has grown up. And despite — or because of — all the distractions of modern life, it’s becoming a newly popular one.

 

Guinevere de la Mare and the Silent Book Club
The Secret Library Podcast, 4/13/2017
On the perils of calling yourself a writer, the early days of social media for book publishers, and how to start your own chapter of the Silent Book Club so that you, too can read peacefully out in the world. 

 

Dear Readers, You Are Not Alone
Poets & Writers Magazine, Jan/Feb 2017
Here’s how it works: A group of friends and strangers meet at a bar or library or café once a month and read together. They don’t read the same book. They’re not even expected to discuss what they’re reading. All they do is read, in a shared space, together, as a community.

 

Why a Silent Book Club Might Save Your Life
Read it Forward, 2016
Once a month, a group of friends meet up at a bar after work. We sink into leather couches, we order drinks, and we pull out our books. There’s chatter about who’s reading what, author recommendations mix with gossip, and a few books swap hands. As conversation dies down, we put our phones away and begin to read.