4 minute read
Keep Quiet and Read On
PHOTO COURTESY OF BOISE SILENT BOOK CLUB
Book clubs around the Treasure Valley share new way to gather, read
BY JULIANA RENNO BOUNDS
When a friend invited me to join the Boise Silent Book Club, I was bamboozled. I love a good book discussion, but in this one, there were no following the same story and almost no talking. Just a group of book lovers hanging out and…reading.
In my first meeting last February, we gathered at a coffee shop, grabbed a drink, and took over a few tables among other patrons. We spent the first half hour sharing the titles of books we read the month before, compiling an awesome list for a Facebook post.
“We find we have so much in common during that first thirty minutes,” said Kathy O’Connell, one of the founders of the Boise Silent Book Club along with her friend, Margit Curtright.
After sharing time, we just sat there, reading our own books in silence, enjoying each other’s company. “It’s like a library here; they are all reading,” we heard someone say. Curtright said she learned about a silent book club starting in San Francisco at a hotel lobby. It was an intriguing concept—a chance for introverts to do something social. She thought it would be a good idea to start one in Boise.
There was no book club like that in town, she remembered. So Curtright decided to change that.
The two friends shared the first event of the Boise SBC chapter on Facebook in January 2017. About five or six people joined. Last May, 77 people requested to join the group, and today, there are 215 members total, though not everyone attends every meeting.
The two other chapters in the Treasure Valley are the Babe Read Boise (West End/Downtown/East End) and the Boise North End/Downtown.
What I love about it is that I can read what I want—there’s no assigned reading.
The original Silent Book Club (a registered trademark!) has built a community of readers in more than one thousand chapters around the world. The group’s idea is simple: members of a silent book club gather in cafes, bars, bookstores, libraries, and more, share their latest reads, and spend the rest of their time reading It’s the reader’s happy hour, with a BYOBook.
“What I love about it is that I can read what I want—there’s no assigned reading,” said Melody Hitchner, a longtime member of the Boise SBC. “It’s great focused reading time and yet, there is something stimulating about reading in the company of others.”
I also felt like reading together (but separately) was a great way to connect with other book lovers without feeling pressure and choosing our favorite book genres. The group was welcoming to all readers, all book formats (even audiobooks), fiction, and non fiction.
“Books don’t turn into homework,” said Curtright, who not only likes mysteries, but also enjoys general fiction and American history. “And it’s nice to see what the things people are reading too.”
O’Connell also noted a few mother-daughter duos who have become regulars of the club, and the growing number of teens who are also joining—my 18-year-old daughter joined and loved the idea.
To become part of the Boise SBC, all you have to do is request to join the group on Facebook. The Boise SBC meets the first Sunday of the month at Lucky Perk Coffee in Meridian from 1-2:30 p.m. To learn more about the other chapters in the Treasure Valley and about the Silent Book Club movement, visit silentbook.club.
