Silent book club meetings and cooling shade on a hot summer day

Yes, meetings … we enjoyed two silent book club meetings in one day today. Each in their way was the pleasurable sanctuary of deep, green shade on a brilliantly hot summer day.

We started – as many book clubs, yoga classes, family get-togethers, not to mention corporate meetings, seminars and more do these days – on zoom. Coffee cups dipped in and out of the screens as we shared our latest reading, from home offices and living rooms and, delightfully more and more, from sunny balconies and backyards. The collective book list is gradually blossoming as we increasingly vanquish the distraction many of us have been suffering these pandemic days.

(Glenn Sumi of Now Magazine recently offered these excellent insights into the science behind why it’s so hard to read a book right now. I was happy to commiserate with Glenn about this reading affliction as he was researching the article.)

Silent book club zoom meeting, with books and coffee cup next to computer

Books and cat

Silent book club selections

Silent book club selections

Silent book club member reading at her cottage

With the warm discussions and connections of our zoom session still aglow in heads and hearts, a handful of us then made our way to the park for a cautious but eagerly anticipated in-person gathering for some silent reading under the trees. Packing for this outing was a little more complicated than usual …

Packing for silent book club meeting in the park

… but with a mask and hand sanitizer in the book bag, that meant I could stop in at our much-missed book club venue, Press books. coffee. vinyl. to pick up an iced coffee on the way to the park.

Silent book club member reading in the park

Silent book club member reading in the park

Silent book club member reading in the park

Silent book club member reading in the park

Silent book club member's feet next to her books and beverage

It was modest, it was physically distanced but it was so very wonderful to gather some of our silent book club friends to finally, companionably, utterly luxuriously enjoy our reading on the grass, in the gorgeous shade, in each other’s bookish company once again. (I’m getting a little verklempt just typing these words …) Our future discussions and compiled reading lists will probably continue to happen in part virtually, but nothing can be compared to the in real life company of fellow booklovers and friends.

You can always catch up on our previous silent book club meeting reports (our online and in-person incarnations) 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.

The text I usually put at the end of each report still isn’t entirely applicable, but I’m still going to repeat it with continued optimism:

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.

The sign-off from our recent reports is, I think, evolving and still very applicable:

We will wait until we can again fling open our doors, venture out and gather in our communities. We’re starting to do that cautiously, but not without justifiable trepidation that warrants alternative ways of gathering. 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, gather in the ways that are safe and make most sense, including virtually. Be well and let books buoy your spirits, make our ever changing and challenging circumstances more tolerable, and make the time pass swiftly.

2 thoughts on “Silent book club meetings and cooling shade on a hot summer day

  1. Sarah

    Thank you for this and the links to this on Twitter…struggling with reading lately and this helps, I think.✨

    Reply
    1. bookgaga Post author

      As you can see, we empathize and are so happy to offer some encouragement. Hope things improve for you soon. Reading is escape, comfort and joy – all things we so need right now.

      Reply

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