Monthly Archives: October 2021

As the months grow darker, books and friendships will light the way

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Our latest silent book club meeting report is introduced by one of our founding members, Kathy McCormick. Not only does she have great bookish thoughts to share, but she’s right in keeping with seasonal themes!

Silent book club member Kathy M

“I guess there are never enough books”
– John Steinbeck

I have been a lifelong introvert who also happens to be shy and suffers from fairly acute social anxiety. Not a great combination for living a large life out in the big wide world. Books have been a comfort to me since early childhood as I learned to navigate life in a world that expected much more from me socially than I would ever be able to give.

I freely admit to riding the social coattails of my much more outgoing and gregarious spouse for the past three decades. When she first came home and mentioned that one of our neighbours (the lovely @bookgaga) had invited us to join a local chapter of the Silent Book Club I have to admit my first thought was “no, of course not”. But once I found out that the meetings would be held at a local establishment and we could read whatever we wanted, well, I was finally willing to take the plunge. And readers, it has become a highly valued thing to me, with many new friendships resulting. I have been inspired to try books I would never have considered before and have appreciated insights and perspectives of the group. They are kind and considerate of every type of written word.

At this time of year, as the days grow shorter and we approach the winter months, my reading always turns toward the spooky, creepy and macabre. I love the Hallowe’en season. I have always been intrigued by the concept of things that exist outside of material reality. I have never understood the peculiarly western obsession with a materialistic worldview which dismissed anything that could not be measured, tested, documented and experimented on. I feel deeply my ancestral roots from island nations steeped in the lore of faeries and banshees, pagans and witches. Give me a good ghost story and I am happy any time of day (though will confess to having slept with the lights on more than once in my life). I am not too fussy about genre but there must be an otherworldly aspect to the stories. No slasher flicks or serial killers: human monsters do not interest me. Give me vampires, zombies, unknown creatures, chain rattling ghosts or books sent flying from shelves by unseen hands. The shadow seen out of the corner of your eye; that strange light in the sky; those footsteps heard overhead when you are home alone … yikes, I’m getting scared now, let me turn on all the lights …

Wait, did you hear that? … WHAT IS THAT!

May your reading and friendships light your way through the coming dark months …

Squizzey joins the zoom meeting

Squizzey presents Kath's books

Vicki's books

Don’t be afraid to dive into our latest combined reading list! The titles featured in each of our reports combine print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks (which are indicated separately, with narrator/performer information where possible).

More book-related articles, resources, news, recommendations and more are often inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat, including:

Our previous silent book club meeting reports (online and in-person incarnations) and book lists are always available for your enjoyment and edification – find them all here. New discoveries, old favourites and more – we guarantee there’s something amongst our reports that will keep your reading appetite fueled.

You can also check out links to articles, 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.

Learn more about silent book clubs 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. Some clubs are currently on hiatus, but many are running virtual meetings in different formats, and some are re-emerging carefully with in-person gatherings. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Stay safe and stay well, and let treasured books continue to light your way!

The distanced intimacy that reading offers

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While pondering and prepping for our latest upcoming silent book club zoom meeting (a mid-week, evening “pop-up”), I came across the following most wonderful quotation, tweeted by Jen Benka (@jenbenka), President and Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets:

“‘Distanced intimacy’ strikes me as a really good phrase for what reading always offers, that books are also technologies for being together alone or alone together … Unknown sources of distanced intimacy — they are out there, just beyond the frame.”

— Ben Lerner

Oh, didn’t that quotation find me at just the perfect moment? I responded on Twitter that the “distanced intimacy” of reading takes many forms. We can feel connection with a book reviewer’s thoughts, or those of avid readers here (meaning Twitter, but on social media and online in general) sharing their enthusiasm for a particular book … or just that feeling of reading and knowing others are experiencing the same words.

In particular, the concept works brilliantly for silent book club groups. There was a form of distanced intimacy even when we met in person, once upon a time. That fellowship of readers and its potent online distanced intimacy have been particularly vital forms of solace and connection throughout the pandemic, and will remain so in future, I absolutely know.

And so it was once again, when we gathered zoomily (but not gloomily) for another exchange of great book recommendations, discussion and comisseration.

Silent book club member Sue R and one of her reading choices

Silent book club member Vicki, on screen, with her latest reading choices

Our latest combined reading list is not only a rich autumn cornupcopia, but also a treasure trove of ideas to store away for the winter. The titles featured in each of our reports combine print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks (which are indicated separately, with narrator/performer information where possible).

More book-related articles, resources, news, recommendations and more are often inspired or offered by our members and/or come up during our discussions and chat, including:

  • On the Proper Use of Stars by Dominique Fortier, translated by Sheila Fischman is one of many historical and imagined retellings of the Franklin Expedition. Our discussion about this book led us to Margaret Atwood’s series of lectures in the mid-1990s on the influence of the mysteries of the Canadian North in many works: Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature.
  • Some of our members have been fascinated by A Ghost in the Throat, an intriguing melding of poetry, translation, memoir, history and more by the Irish poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa. The Poetry Extension recently interviewed her.

Boost your reading with much bookish manna from heaven, courtesy of our previous silent book club meeting reports (online and in-person incarnations) and book lists – find them all here. We just know you’ll find something new or unusual, or maybe something old and familiar, that will keep your reading mojo working.

You can also check out links to articles, 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.

Learn more about silent book clubs 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. Some clubs are currently on hiatus, but many are running virtual meetings in different formats. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Stay safe and stay well, in this world and the worlds that books open to us.