In our previous silent book club report – our first report of this new, uncharted era – I observed how when our reserves of determination, courage and good humour run low, one of the things we celebrated in the old world that can still replenish our spirits in this new world was a good, inspiring, comforting, diverting book. That still holds truth in the most steadfast ways, but I think readers everywhere are struggling and how they read is evolving – maybe temporarily, maybe not. This Twitter thread captures it well:

For the foreseeable future, we have the dates of what would have been our in-person silent book club meetings tentatively converted to zoom meetings, ably and gracefully managed by our club’s co-founder, Jo. We do miss Press, the book / record / coffee shop where we usually hold our meetings … and we make a point of swinging by there on late evening dog walks, to make quiet promises that we will return.

Prior to everyone sheltering in place (thankfully, with their books and reading devices), some of our silent book club members crafted some appreciations on the value of our group. I intended to share some of them with upcoming meeting reports, and of course, there is no reason not to continue doing that. It’s interesting how some of those appreciations have new meaning in these current circumstances – and I also think they provide signposts for the future. Here is Jo’s tribute:

“Our Silent Book Club has been a real joy for me. I have met wonderful people in my neighbourhood and beyond that I never would have met in any other way. And my reading has been both accelerated and broadened by the wide variety of books that others are reading and commenting on. The wide variety of interests and reading styles (some always finish a book, others give the book 50 pages to prove that it is worth spending time on!) are inspiring. And I deeply appreciate the generosity of people in sharing books they’ve read with others in the group.”

In addition to our scheduled meetings, we hosted a pop-up meeting last week, with our regular east end Toronto group and invitations extended to our silent book club compatriots in midtown Toronto and Mississauga. It was wonderful to see everyone pop up on the screen, and to hear their voices and what they had to share. To a person, we commented on our challenges with focusing on our reading balanced with our desire and commitment to continue. While each person remarked that their overall reading was down, in terms of pages, books, focus and so on, collectively we still offer an abundant and heartening harvest of solace, entertainment and new and different worlds in which to dwell – here it is:

• Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors by Peter Ackroyd
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
• Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
• Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
• Hollywood by Charles Bukowski
• The Door is Open: Memoir of a Soup Kitchen Volunteer by Bart Campbell
• My Ántonia by Willa Cather
• Unlock by Bei Dao, translated by Eliot Weinberger and Iona Man-Cheong
• A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
• Astray by Emma Donoghue
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
• The Economist
• Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
• The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn
• The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) (audiobook)
• Still Alice by Lisa Genova
• Coming Ashore by Catherine Gildiner
• Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell (audiobook)
• Minutes of the Lead Pencil Club by Bill Henderson
• In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire by Tom Holland
• Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
• heft by Doyali Islam
• How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
• In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
• Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik
• A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin (audiobook)
• A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin (audiobook)
• Born to Run by Christopher McDougall (audiobook)
• It’s Not All Downhill from Here by Terry McMillan
• American Rust by Philipp Meyer
• Me Before You by JoJo Moyes
• Gardening books by Piet Oudolf
• Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill (audiobook)
• Still Life by Louise Penny
• A Velocity of Being: Letters to A Young Reader edited by Maria Popova
• In Search of Lost Time Volume V – The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust
• The Huntress by Kate Quinn
• Ghostland by Duncan Ralston
• Salvage by Duncan Ralston
• Every Part of the Animal by Duncan Ralston
• And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier, translated by Rhonda Mullins
• The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd
• The Perfect Nanny by Leïla Slimani
• Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
  (audiobook)
• From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle
• Fashionopolis by Dana Thomas
• Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
• The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West (audiobook)
• The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
• Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

See also: The Silent Book Club, a global meet-up for introverts, now connects them remotely by Victoria Namkung (April 10, 2020 in Los Angeles Times)

As always, you can catch up on our previous silent book club meeting reports and book lists here.

We’re pleased and honoured to have been interviewed about the silent book club concept and how to start a club of one’s own. You can check out links to articles, CBC Radio interviews and more here – some with San Francisco-based Silent Book Club founders Guinevere de La Mare and Laura Gluhanich, and some with us here in east end Toronto.

Under the current circumstances, this text I put at the end of each silent book club report isn’t entirely applicable, but I’m going to repeat it with optimism anyhow:
If you’ve so far enjoyed the silent book club experience virtually, are you tempted to experience it firsthand? Via Guinevere and Laura’s Silent Book Club web site, you can find information on meetings happening around the world and close to where you live. If you’re interested in starting your own silent book club or are in the Toronto area and perhaps interested in checking ours out, check out the resources on the Silent Book Club web site, or please feel free to contact me for more information.

And the sign-off from our last report is, I think, still very applicable:

We will wait until we can again fling open our doors, venture out and gather in our communities. A silent book club meeting with friends and neighbours, held at and in support of a local business exemplifies exactly the kinds of freedoms we are foregoing now to get through these unsettled and unsettling times … and is where we’re all going to want to be when we get through this. Read well where you are now, be well and let books buoy your spirits and make the time pass swiftly.