by Jo Nelson

In August of 2018, three of us, Vicki, Jo, and Kirsten, were among the neighbourhood people gathering in Stephenson Park for Kirsten’s yoga class. Activities in the park were a true local community development initiative catalyzed by Peter Woodcock to address some challenges in the park and community.

As we walked from the park after the class, the three of us got to talking about a book club as another activity to bring the community together. One of us had tried to start a traditional one that didn’t work. Vicki enthusiastically introduced us to the concept of a Silent Book Club, where everyone could read whatever they wanted during the month, we would share our lists with no judgement, and then spend a companionable hour sitting silently together reading. We were inspired and decided to try it, meeting at a neighbourhood used book and record store/coffee shop called Press to support the local economy as well as the cultural aspect of reading!

The first meeting had 4 participants, who had read everything from poetry to novels to a car repair manual.

Through Vicki’s invitations and connections, the group grew exponentially during the first year. Within months, we were beyond our informal beginnings. We found ourselves having to buy more chairs for the coffee shop, and then declaring a limit on numbers that could attend at one time. Vicki organized a central email address and a growing file of members and contact information. She posted stories, photos, and lists of the books we had read in her blog. Eventually media invitations to talk about the club began to come in. From there, several other Silent Book Clubs spun off in other neighbourhoods across Toronto and beyond.

The eclectic interests of the members have inspired many of us to try new authors and genres that we would not have tried on our own. There are a number of books that have been passed from person to person, and sometimes back again. Between us, we have read poetry, non-fiction, historical novels, classic gems such as Little Women and Proust, the entire collection of Louise Penny’s mysteries set in Quebec and Kent Haruf’s stories of a small town in Colorado, graphic novels, women’s adventure stories, Indigenous and Black authors, books about Toronto and by Toronto authors, and young adult fiction. Not to mention the car operation manual!

In addition to meeting at Press, we have enjoyed refreshing summer meetings under the trees in the park.

When the lockdown began, we moved our regular meetings to Zoom* with some trepidation but unwillingness to let the connections go. In addition, we created pop-up weeknight special meetings mid-month on Zoom. The connection and support of these meetings has sustained us through the uncertainty of the pandemic.

And we have discovered joy in the new friends we have made, both the fictional ones and the other readers.

So here’s to the joy of the last 3 years, and to the next 3 years and more!

* I had to jump into Jo’s article here to point out that she administers and chairs the Zoom meetings with aplomb and a steady hand!