“Lots of time … and I don’t know what I’m doing with it.” That’s how one ruefully bemused silent book club member described what would have been a booklover’s delicious dream not so long ago – hours and days and weeks of unstructured, uncommitted, unscheduled time to just read, read, read …

While we’re all still struggling with the distractions of this strange time, us readers are still meeting, comparing notes, working up the energy to enthuse about the reading delights and victories , getting through it together. When we each click “Leave Meeting” to start our shared hour of reading in spirit, I’m certain we’re all coming away feeling bolstered by the company and encouragement. We need to keep doing this, don’t we?

As I did in our last report, I want to share another appreciation on the value of our group from one of our members. Emilia’s is like a love letter, and while poignant, it sounds beautifully hopeful notes for how we are getting through, and what we will look forward to resuming once this is got through:

Dear lovely SBC people,

I live in books. For me, books have always been an escape, a home, a friend, a salvation, a teacher, a window, a mirror, a hope, and a promise. I taught myself to read when I was 4. I’ve been reading ever since. I cannot stress how truly life-saving this has been.

Another life-saving thing has been to – quite late in life, I feel – begin to consciously and deliberately seek out fellow readers and connect with them. You know how they say you should “step out of your comfort zone” now and then? Well, I had spent most of my life outside of mine. Joining the SBC was a much-needed step back *into* that comfort zone.

And, let me tell you, it felt like stepping into a hot bath after a long hard day. Our meetings are the highlight of my month. Invariably, I look forward to sitting with you in companionable silence, to listening to your bookish adventures and suggestions, and wishing, much like Harry had when he first saw the magic of Diagon Alley, that I “had about eight more eyes”, so that I could read all your fascinating recommendations.

PS. I was a book club virgin before the SBC. Since joining, I’ve also tried a regular book club and, somehow, found it much less satisfactory. All I could think was, “Well, that sure was different. Everyone reading and discussing the same book? Weird!”

While we all remain a little concerned individually that our reading enthusiasm and tempo is suffering these days, collectively we still offer a very heartening cornucopia of books. Here is the latest:

• The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Books by Inger Ash Wolfe (alias for Michael Redhill) (audiobooks)
• Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
• A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (audiobook)
• Nylon Road by Parsua Bashi
• Queen Solomon by Tamara Faith Berger
• Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson
• My Ántonia by Willa Cather
• Hamilton Illustrated by David Collier
• Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
• American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
• Unlock by Bei Dao, translated by Eliot Weinberger and Iona Man-Cheong
• Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter
• Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change by Jared Diamond
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
• Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
• Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman
• A Bintel Brief – Love and Longing in Old New York by Liana Finck
• Pilgrim by Timothy Findley
• The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald
• Crusoe: Daniel Defoe, Robert Knox & The Creation of a Myth by Katherine Frank
• The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor
• Still Alice by Lisa Genova
• Coming Ashore by Catherine Gildiner
• Good Housekeeping South Africa (Jan/Feb 2018)
• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (audiobook)
• The Wisdom of Groundhog Day – How to improve your life one day at a time by Paul Hannam
• The Driftwood Girls by Mark Douglas Home (audiobook)
• Nancy Drew 49: the Secret of Mirror Bay by Carolyn Keene
• A Matter of Malice by Thomas King
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• A Noble Radiance by Donna Leon
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
• The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey
• The Joy of Movement by Kelly McGonigal
• American Rust by Philipp Meyer
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
• The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro
• The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht (audiobook)
• Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill (audiobook)
• The books of Louise Penny
• A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: The Life of William Dampier by Diana and Michael Preston
• Sodom and Gomorrah, In Search of Lost Time, Volume 4 by Marcel Proust
• The Huntress by Kate Quinn
• Salvage by Duncan Ralston
• Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney (audiobook)
• London by Edward Rutherfurd
• Spring by Ali Smith
• Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
• Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace by Kate Summerscale
• On the Plain of Snakes by Paul Theroux
• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles + audiobook
• The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
• Swamp Angel by Ethel Wilson
• Sergeant Frank Hardy mysteries by Wendy Wilson

You can always 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 couple of reports 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.