Want to Read More This Year? Try a Silent Book Club to Stay Motivated Without the Pressure

Traditional book clubs aren’t for everyone. Maybe the idea of assigned reading isn’t your thing, or you find the group discussions awkward or tedious. Or you just never have time to read the book!

Upending the “choose a book, read it on your own, then get together to talk about it” format, a Silent Book Club takes the opposite approach: Members gather in a public space (bar, library, park, bookstore), pull out whatever book they’ve brought with them, and simply…read together. While most meetings include socializing before and after the structured reading period, there’s no pressure to join in, and there are no rules about what to talk about. Basically, it’s an introvert’s dream.

The idea started with two friends at a wine bar in San Francisco in 2012. Over drinks, Guinevere de la Mare lamented to Laura Gluhanich that the novel her book club had chosen was a drag to read. “I didn’t want to finish it, yet it felt like I had this homework assignment. And I had a 2-year-old, so I was getting no reading done at home. I said, ‘I wish I had a book club where you could just get some time to read,'” Guinevere recalls. “Laura was like, ‘I love this idea! Let’s make it happen.'”

The two of them began incorporating quiet reading time into their wine-bar meetups, then they expanded to include more friends, who spread the word to their friends, and in 2015, Guinevere and Laura launched an official Silent Book Club organization.

Today, there are almost 1,300 Silent Book Club chapters in the U.S. and close to 1,700 worldwide, on every continent except Antarctica. Though the organization has been around for a decade, the trend has really taken off in the past couple of years: According to Eventbrite data, the number of Silent Book Club events grew by 223% between 2023 and 2024, with attendance rising by 180%.

Intrigued? Read on for more details on how Silent Book Clubs work and how to take part.

What Happens at Silent Book Club

…stays at Silent Book Club. Just kidding. In fact, the vibe is open and welcoming, and all meetings are free to attend and take place in a public spot. “We’re very committed to making it inclusive and accessible to all,” Guinevere says. “Our main goal is community building.”

Attendees are generally a mix of friends and strangers, who convene at a library, in a bookstore, at a cafe or bar, in a park, or even online. “Typically meetings are two hours long,” Guinevere says. “The first 30 minutes is for socializing—you arrive, you sit down, you share what you’re reading. Then you have an hour of uninterrupted reading. At the end, there’s another 30 minutes where you can chat about the experience.”

However, the structure is loose, and Guinevere says that local organizers have free rein to set the cadence. “We always tell organizers, ‘Do what works for you.'”

In Indianapolis, Kelsey Jones has been organizing Silent Book Club events for three years, and usually about 100 people show up to each one. She switches up the venue—hotel, distillery, public gardens, etc. “We do a 90-minute meetup every month, and we start with silent reading for 30 or so minutes. People naturally start talking after that. So the last hour is then either continue reading if you want, or socialize.”

On Martha’s Vineyard, Jeff Levy recently started a chapter at a local bookstore called Bunch of Grapes. The bookstore’s owner opens her shop after hours to attendees and gives guests 20% off books. “On an average night, it’s 10 or 12 people,” he says. “Reading is from 5:30 to 6:30, and then we walk two doors down to a restaurant. Anyone who wants to hang out afterward can come, or they can just leave. And the conversation at dinner is rarely about books, which is kind of funny. Often it’s about the state of the world.”

Guinevere notes that an emerging trend is audiobook walks. “People will meet at a trailhead, then go on a hike while listening to audiobooks. Afterward they’ll gather and have a picnic.”

So as long as you’re reading in some form or another, and allowing others to join you, you’re doing Silent Book Club right.

Why People Love It

While Silent Book Club is nicknamed “introvert happy hour,” the communal aspect is part of what makes it special. Briana Parker, who hosts a club at her Brooklyn bookstore, Lofty Pigeon Books, says, “It’s good for introverts and for people who want a social element. You can be around people without being pushed to interact with them in a specific way. The whole thing is very organic and very low-pressure.” Jeff notes, “It’s not like just going to a library with a bunch of other people, because there’s that time to be social.” (If you want!)

It’s also a judgment-free zone, Kelsey says. “It doesn’t matter if you’re listening to an audiobook or you have an e-reader or a hardback. It’s inclusive of all types of readers and all genres. There’s no discrimination about what you’re reading. I love that it’s a space to get recommendations, learn about new authors, and just have that sense of community with fellow book lovers.”

Another major benefit, of course, is the chance to read, which can be hard to come by in our distraction-filled world. “I’m one of those people who used to read a ton and have been negatively impacted by screen time,” Jeff says. “So I love the enforced reading time.” Many of Briana’s club-goers appreciate the same thing: “A lot of people say this is a way to have a longer attention span. They’re like, ‘When I’m at home, I keep pulling out my phone. But here I feel weird about doing that. I’m forced to focus on my book.'”

Yet even avid at-home readers enjoy the gatherings. “I do read at home by myself quite a bit,” Briana says, “and I didn’t think I would have needed something like this.” (She started the club because two customers, who craved more time to read away from home and their young children, asked her to.) “And yet I love it. There’s something about everyone doing the same task together that gives you that great feeling of community. You look around the room and everyone’s just quietly reading, and it’s this beautiful sight.”

How to Join a Club or Start Your Own

To find a chapter near you, visit the Silent Book Club official site, which offers an interactive map and links to the chapters’ websites. Many groups also publicize events on Eventbrite, where attendees can get a (free) ticket and invitation details and reminders. You’re not committing to be part of a club—you can go to just a single event if you’d like. “Meetings are a mix of regulars and people who come once to check it out,” Briana says.

To start your own chapter, register through the Silent Book Club site, which gives detailed instructions. If you’re a business owner like Briana, you can host meetings at your venue; otherwise, Kelsey recommends connecting with local businesses before you launch. “Establish that relationship and have a venue that will agree to host you every month, or maybe you have two or three venues that are your go-tos and you bounce around,” she says.

As the organizer, you also set the overall tone and decide how much time to devote to reading versus socializing. You can ring a bell when reading time starts, or just let it happen naturally. “I was worried about getting 40 people to quiet down all at once,” Briana says. “But it’s actually the opposite. People get there early and just start reading.”