ICommuting hours and sun still pass through the lush canopy of Queen Victoria Garden in Melbourne. In a cool concrete sanctuary Mpavilion – City's annual building equipment/event space/public shelter – a small group of people reading. Some bean bags have reclining and perches on the stool. Others leaned against a concrete wall with grooves, the wind was running through my hair. It was almost an hour, no one spoke. They just read.
This is a silent book club with no required book list, admission fees, or organized discussions. I'm just reading quietly at work.
The silent book club, dubbed the “book club for introverts,” was launched in 2012 when several San Francisco friends felt that the traditional book club was involved in too much pressure. Silent Book Club has since become global and chapters have been opened On all continents.
It is a project that was adopted at face value and appears to be immersed in contradictions. A good book should be absorbed – why do you consciously come together to participate in the lonely habits that should have been ignored by each other if it is going well? What is this sitting in the library, especially if the other person reading around you is a stranger?
This morning, Sky Bennett, founder of the Melbourne chapter, welcomes everyone kindly. She invites them to sit wherever they feel comfortable, and to find a book if they don't have it: the Melbourne hub, the hub of all literature, set up a bookcase on the wall of one of the pavilions. There are stacks of books linked to community and gathering ideas. However, most participants brought their own.
Bennett says about 60 people attend the regular session she is holding at Dockland. The last Sunday of the monthand they often sit reading much longer than the set time. Today, around 10 people gather at the pavilion. A small turnout could reflect that it is both a work day and an unscheduled pop-up event. There is a bit of quiet chat before reading time officially begins, but not much. And we open the book.
last month, Research commissioned by Advocacy Organization Australia Reads Over half of us have shown that we want to read more than we actually are, but even our extremely enthusiastic readers struggle to make enough time for it. Many say that for recreational reading, it's more difficult than scrolling through social media or watching TV.
Bennett says many of Melbourne's participants. Being a reader but busy person, the silent book club allows you to prioritize reading habits among other competing tasks. It can also function like a physical infusion for those who are struggling with motivation. This is a tactic used by some people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and as a kind of social scaffolding, the second person is working together to accomplish difficult tasks.
The accompanying low manifestation of social contact appears to help people get out of their shells, Bennett says.
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“It seems counterintuitive that new friendships are being formed in clubs that embrace silence, but I have seen many new connections and friendships formed and flourished at the Silent Book Club,” says Bennett.
“It's very typical for participants to attend a meeting first, but they leave with others. I think that's the beauty of a silent book club. When social pressures, expectations and obligations are removed, people feel that they are allowed to connect with others in a way that feels comfortable and authentic.”
Especially for Melbourne, it is the most trapped city in the world, and perhaps undoubtedly a long tail of COVID recovery, but the idea of spending time consciously with minimal social pressure has an understandable appeal.
Perhaps some of the attractions are a bit more numbers.
In Mpavilion, the sun slowly creeps up onto a semi-open roof, traffic bumps into the background as it sets over the novel. The Silent Book Club experience feels like it's not something like art or meditation or prayer with friends. Here we will meet with like-minded followers and set the time, reading rituals that are carved for us to participate in this. It is a church for book lovers.
