Author Archives: bookgaga

Books where nothing happens, and other things we silent book clubbers love

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“I love books where nothing happens!”

… and all the silent book club members shimmering in another magical zoom gathering smiled and nodded knowingly. We readers know, don’t we?

We also love to ensure our reading is close at hand, whether we’re home or going afar. When the email notifications for our latest meeting went out, one of the first replies was from longtime group stalwart Catherine D. She revealed that she was sending her message while on vacation in Italy. She said she wouldn’t be able to zoom in for the meeting, but would be reading in solidarity while on a train during the meeting time. She also revealed that, even after lots of good advice from a recent in-person in-the-park silent book club gathering at which she’d received lots of good advice on which books to pack for her trip … well, she still had to purchase more books when she reached her destination. Isn’t that always the way? She sent us a digital postcard – shared on the zoom meeting, of course – of her in front of The Almost Corner Bookshop in Trastevere, Rome. We love everything about this.

Silent book club member Catherine in front of the Almost Corner Bookshop in Rome

We also clearly love carrying our books with us wherever we go – to the beach, for example, or to a shaded spot in the backyard. (How perfect that an Eastern Comma butterfly perched on one of our readers’ chairs in the backyard in a small post-zoom meeting gathering.)

Beth holds up When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman while at the beach

Eastern Comma butterfly sitting on the back of a chair

Most movingly, the images of people who value books carrying them to keep the books safe, to preserve books, to share books with others, emerged as an interesting motif in our discussions today. In 1937 Nanking in The Library of Legends by Janie Chang, the protagonist and her university classmates and professors carry the eponymous books 1,000 miles to safety in China’s western provinces when their city is bombed. In 1930s Appalachia, a traveling librarian in The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson rides by mule to bring books and periodicals to isolated rural Kentuckians. Although she was not conventionally literate herself, medieval wife, mother, and mystic Margery Kempe convinced those who could write to tell her story in what is considered the earliest autobiography written in the English language. Her voice from the early 1400s is carried to us today in book form.

Text from autobiography of Margery Kempe

THE FIRE OF LOVE
fig. 1 Add. MS 61823, f. 43v. Reproduced with the permission of the British Library.
In figure 1 Margery’s first experience of ‘þe fyer of loue’ (88/32) is boldly noted with a stylised drawing of flames, and a Latin gloss: ‘ignis diuini amoris … so s[eint] {or scilicet?} R[ichard] [of] Hampall’.

We love to share our book discoveries and challenges, and carry them to you here.

Kathryn E's stack of recent reading, with a squirrel calendar set to July 30th

Vicki's stack of recent reading, with Jake the beagle-basset under the desk

As always, our latest combined book list – this one is immense! – gathers the recent reading of many of our members, whether they attended the meeting in question or not. When I send out meeting notifications to the group, I get swift and diligent replies back and whether or not someone is joining the meeting, they regularly send their recent reading.

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). Any title on any of our group’s lists means that at least one (often more) readers have given that title some consideration. That is enough, to my mind, to say that another reader reading our reports and lists might consider it, too. Is that an out-and-out recommendation? Not necessarily, but it means a title has been given attention and thought, and that always counts for a lot.

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. Here are the latest:

  • President Barack Obama’s annual summer reading and music lists are always eagerly anticipated.
  • This year’s Booker Prize longlist includes titles already familiar to our silent book club group, along with new titles to challenge and delight.
  • Recommend Me a Book is an intriguing web site that helps you find new books to read without first judging the them by their covers. It offers up the first pages of novels without bias, and reveals the author and title if you indicate you’re interested. Even if you already have great sources of book recommendations – like, say, a really awesome silent book club group – you are likely to become obsessed with this site.
  • Learn more here and here about the Almost Corner Bookshop in Trastevere, Rome, which our silent book club friend visited recently.

Our previous silent book club reports (for online and in-person meetings) and book lists are always available for you to enjoy and get some reading inspiration right here.

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 or modified schedules, many are running virtual meetings in different formats, and some are carefully running in-person gatherings again. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Be sure to carry good reading with you, wherever you go!

Comforting routines and rejuvenating surprises in our meetings and reading

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Another silent book club zoom meeting popped up last week and it was, as it always is, a warm and joyous thing. (Well, not too warm. In fact, it was also pretty cool.)

We’ve all developed coping mechanisms and methods of resilience to get through the particular demands and challenges of the last couple of years, haven’t we? We’ve often turned to the comfort of the predictable and familiar routines, leavened from time to time with measures of spontaneity and surprise.

That describes well how our silent book club group members have gathered, largely virtually, since early 2020. We settled pretty quickly and adaptably in a twice-monthly pattern: one predictably scheduled Saturday morning zoom (and occasional careful in-person) meeting, and one not-so-predictably anticipated weekday evening meeting, deemed a “pop-up” meeting only announced shortly before its date.

Not surprisingly, the more predictably scheduled meeting typically welcomes more attendees. The more spur-of-the-moment meeting, less so in terms of numbers, is decidedly not lesser in terms of liveliness and range of discussion. At our latest meeting, for example, my comments on the brisk essay/review The Worst Truth by John Metcalf (Biblioasis) has us all sharing thoughts on what constitutes a Canadian “classic” work, maybe even questioning what we previously revered.

The alternating rhythms of routine and surprise – in our meetings and our reading – have served us all well.

Me, on screen, getting ready for a silent book club zoom meeting, with my stack of books and a glass of wine next to the computer

Our latest combined book list gathers the recent reading of many of our members, whether they are in attendance or not. 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). As I observed in another recent report from our group, any title on any of our group’s lists means that at least one (often more) readers have given that title some consideration – and that is enough, to my mind, to say that another reader reading our reports and lists might consider it, too.

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. Here are the latest:

  • Perhaps we’re a bit biased, but we think silent book club groups and meetings and reading lists are good for what ails you when you’re in a reading slump. But if you need a few more tips, here are some from the Washington Post.
  • Some of us did not know that cozy mysteries are a thing. Not only do we know that now, but we’re totally up on cozy mysteries by themes. You will be amazed!
  • In Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, the English writer, broadcaster, classicist, and comedian takes a fresh look at the ancient world, creating stand-up routines about figures from ancient Greece and Rome.

Our previous silent book club reports (for online and in-person meetings) and book lists are always available for you to enjoy and get some reading inspiration right here.

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 or modified schedules, 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.

May your reading afford you the perfect balance of routine and surprise, comfort and spontaneity you so desire!

Welcoming every reader and every book

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Our silent book club group welcomes every reader and everything every reader reads and shares with the group. I’ve said this outright and heaven knows it is a strong current running through all our discussions, meetings and reports.

That is not to say that our conversations are blandly diplomatic and devoid of critical perspective. On the contrary, over the almost four years our group has been in existent, our members have become very comfortable not just with sharing wonderful reading experiences, but with being very candid about less-than-satisfactory experiences with particular works.

While the first rule of Silent Book Club is definitely *not* that we do not speak of Silent Book Club … what happens in our conversations seems to largely stay in silent book club, which is decidedly special. Even when the conversation gets lively, shall we say, there is always an abiding respect for other readers and their preferences, for authors, for publishers, for performers (such as those who narrate audiobooks, for example) and more.

Jenn and Sven's books on a shelf

Sue R hiding behind a book

Philippa's 1960 Cookery Book

Vicki on screen, getting reading for the zoom silent book club meeting, with her books stacked next to her computer

Jo's shady reading spot in her backyard

Catherine reading in the park

Sue reading in the park

What then is the meaning of the book lists we present with our meeting reports?

Empirically, they list alphabetically by author surname all of the recent reading of many of our members, whether they are in attendance or not. (Many members kindly provide their monthly reading lists, whether they are able to attend a meeting or not.) 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).

Qualitatively, the lists do not indicate what each reader had to say about a given title. But during our meetings, our readers might praise and recommend a work, might recommend it with caveats or reservations, or might firmly reject a work – but only for them, not necessarily for others. So, nothing is condemned outright (although some reviews can be pretty, ahem, vehement), but might be presented with, well, cautions attached.

Minus our group’s cumulative, ongoing commentary and the special alchemy of our interactions and earned trust of each other’s opinions, adding words of criticism or praise here have no fair context. Does that make sense? And doesn’t that confirm that the secret sauce here is the book lists and information coupled with the chemistry of our fellow readers?

Objectively, any title on any of our group’s lists means that at least one (often more) readers have given that title some consideration – and that is enough, to my mind, to say that another reader reading our reports and lists might consider it, too.

Here’s the latest!

Our previous silent book club reports (for online and in-person meetings) and book lists are always available for you to enjoy and get some reading inspiration right here.

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 or modified schedules, 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.

Wishing everyone happy reading … and the chance to discuss that reading – happy or not – with other readers.

Bookish heaven – oh, we found it!

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Was it a dream? Still aglow a day later, I can say no, this special event was real …

We made our way through a heavenly bookstore portal (pausing to browse and make some purchases), then down a lush garden path, over a welcoming threshold to absolute silent book club paradise, complete with a chandelier, fairy lights and lovely, chill bookstore dog Scout. The Great Escape Bookstore so generously provided us with a magical space for an unforgettable bookish gathering.

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

The pleasures of reading silently together as a group all came flooding back, as if the last two years have been some other kind of strange dream. The Great Escape garage was a peaceful balance of the hum of nearby neighbourhood activity, and the comforting sound of pages turning, readers shifting in their chairs or nibbling snacks, a dog slipping gently amongst us from time to time … and oh, those shared happy glances when two readers looked up from their books at the same time …

That first hour went by so quickly, and then we took another hour to chat, to describe what we’d been reading, to share excerpts and other recent reading experiences and challenges. The only thing that could have further intensified the magic was to have even more zoom-to-real-life transformations – more of our reading companions who have been with us before, and with us throughout these challenging times – with us there in that perfect setting.

As we ventured home with replenished book bags and replenished hearts, we know more gatherings like this will be in our future.

Here are the books we read and discussed at The Great Escape:

And now, I’ll just let a few more pictures of our bookish heaven speak for themselves.

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Silent book club meeting at The Great Escape bookstore

Heading into a season of the dreamiest, most idyllic reading experiences

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The east end Toronto silent book club is very fortunate to have a sister silent book club group in midtown Toronto, featured a year ago in this blog post by founder Beth Gordon. The midtown Toronto group is taking a summer hiatus – just from meeting, to be clear, certainly not from reading, especially during a season perfect for some of the most idyllic reading experiences. Before they go offline for a few months, the midtown group members would like to share their latest combined reading list, from which you might find some great summer reads.

In addition to some great reading suggestions, the midtown group also offers some most excellent settings in which (and reading companions with whom) to enjoy your reading. So, dear readers, get to it!

Beth's reading spot

Gould reading spot

Sue W's reading spot

Vicki's reading spot, with reading companion Tilly the Airedale

Gathering virtually, reading al fresco

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A couple of years ago, many of us probably thought online meetings and gatherings were a temporary measure. We were willing for a time to put up with technical challenges and zoom fatigue to conduct business, to keep in touch with family and friends, to be entertained, to maintain all types of connections and so on. But eventually we would go back to in person activities, back to, er, normal – right?

Even as our silent book club group contemplates and actually makes good on live gatherings – and enjoys them immensely – we know that the online component, which often continues to be a genuine lifeline, is not going away. Because our virtual meetings have allowed us to include participants from elsewhere in the world, expanding our horizons and enriching our bookish camaraderie, we can’t and won’t close that door now that we can potentially head back to coffee shops and local parks. We still haven’t mapped out how a hybrid meeting would or could work, but as pictures from this month’s online and park gatherings attest, we’ll be doing both henceforth – and we’re all better readers and friends for it.

Abby the beagle poses with Mary's books

Me on screen preparing for the popup silent book club zoom meeting

Tilly the Airedale in my office, with my computer and lots of books nearby

Kath E's books

More books

Catherine D in the park with a book

Sue R in the park with a book

Jo in the park with a book

Silent book club members in the park with books

Sue W in the park with Ruby the cockapoo and a book

Me in the park with a book

Our latest combined book list gathers the recent reading of many of our members, whether they are in attendance or not. This list is distinctly (blooming!) plentiful, as it gathers books mentioned in both May meetings, our mid-month “pop-up” and our regular end-of-month Saturday meeting. 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. Here are the latest:

Our previous silent book club reports (for online and in-person meetings) and book lists are always available for you to enjoy and get some reading inspiration right here.

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 or modified schedules, 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.

How our silent book club has opened up our (sometimes locked down) world

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Toronto silent book club member Catherine Xu introduces our latest silent book club meeting report with singular style and perspectives. She joined our group during the pandemic and has become a steadfast presence in the year (happy anniversary!) she’s been with us. As we’ve observed in the last couple of years, meeting virtually means that we’ve been able to fling our doors open wider and extend the boundaries of what constitutes east end Toronto, which includes both Pontypridd in Wales and Catherine’s home, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA.

Silent book club member Catherine XuGreetings from Catherine in New Jersey, USA. Reflecting on my past year attending regular Toronto silent book club meetings, I found myself much more immersed in the world of books, audiobooks, poetry, and more. I am truly thankful to Vicki and Jo for welcoming me into this circle and everyone’s recommendations. Below are just a few new activities I have enjoyed.

  • Listen to more audiobooks and seek out favorite narrators.
  • Bring reading outdoors. Nature offers the best reading soundtrack.
  • Attend poetry events, including Bryant Park poetry readings and Governors Island Poetry Festival.
  • Try more non-fiction, especially related to natural sciences.
  • Learn to talk about a book and formulate my thoughts around it, beyond just “I liked/hated it”.
  • Research and select book reviews, author interviews, and book club discussion guides.
  • Enjoy poetry read out loud (in forms of podcasts and audiobooks). And then read it on my own and share it with a group.
  • Discover and share New York Public Library events, resources, and exhibitions.
  • Join more book clubs! While we don’t have assigned reading in Silent Book Club, I do enjoy expanding genre/medium with various book clubs that offer assigned reading. I have joined a few different ones through work, hobby groups, the library, and the local bookstore.

As the world opens up, I would love to welcome silent book club visitors who find themselves heading to New York City. Jersey City is just across the Hudson River. Check out:

  • Jersey City Waterfront: Walk along the waterfront to take in the Manhattan skyline
  • Van Vorst Park – beautiful park and garden situated across the street from one of the Jersey City libraries. Wonderful flowers all year around and a weekly Farmers Market
  • Word bookstore – My very first book club experience (in-person) was hosted by this bookstore. They have since moved to online book club meetings so anyone can join the book club discussions.

Catherine likes to read in parks

Reader Profile / Ice breakers

Reader Name: Catherine

Professional field: Financial Services

Location: New Jersey, USA

Reading Format: Digital ebooks and audiobooks on Libby library app (New York Public Library)

Favorite Reading Nook: any outdoor park (non-winter). Couch with virtual fireplace (winter)

Most memorable book from the past year: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. I appreciated the quiet and introspective part of this book, while the world was slowly opening up. The narrator offers a good balance of snail facts with her own personal interactions with her pet snail.

Best bookstore for visitors: Toss up between the NY Library shop and the Strand.

Recent booklish accessory: bookshelf themed iphone case

A bookstore discovery from your travels: Powell’s bookstore in Portland, Oregon. I spent quite a few hours here!

Non-reading related hobby: dance

Non-traditional reading?

  • Podcast interview transcripts/show notes: See Tim Ferris show or How to Save a Planet call to action
  • Department of Salad newsletter
  • Hand-written notes in public places. Examples include Letters to Trees at Madison Square Park and Questionnaires at the Rubin Museum “How do you start healing?”. I enjoy reading handwriting and also ruminating on the Q’s and responses that people provide. A cafe I visited in Seattle a few years ago also had large guest books where people wrote love notes, doodled, and their reviews of the cafe/surrounding area. It was really great reading through it and adding my own words to the collection.

Tell Me the Truth About Love by W.H. Auden - part of Philippa's reading

Born in Blackness by Howard French - part of Lyla's reading

Jo's reading chair

Vicki's stack of books, including The Books of Jacob, with Jake the beagle-basset under the table

Lyla, Sue and Jo with their books in Stephenson Park

Jo with her reading in Stephenson Park

Lyla with her reading in Stephenson Park

Sue with her reading in Stephenson Park

Vicki with her reading and Jake the beagle-basset in Stephenson Park

Our combined reading list gathers the recent reading of many of our members, whether they are in attendance or not. 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:

Poet Raymond Antrobus reads the poem “Dear Hearing World” from his poetry collection The Perseverance (on this month’s reading list)

Our previous silent book club reports (for online and in-person meetings) and book lists are always available for you to enjoy and get some reading inspiration right here.

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 or modified schedules, 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.

Popping up with another silent book club meeting – a mid-week oasis

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It’s been a busy, sometimes fraught, sometimes challenging week – smack dab in the midst of which was what our group calls a “pop-up” silent book club meeting, assembled on shorter notice than our usual monthly meetings. In addition to affording us continued connection throughout the pandemic, Zoom has also allowed us to have meetings somewhat more spur of the moment than if we were meeting in person. (Not not NOT that we don’t want to meet in person, but …)

Anyhow, the pop-up meeting was smaller in attendance than our monthly gatherings, but still cozy and collegial. It was an oasis. It mitigated what had gone before in the week, and eased what came after, setting everything in perfect balance.

Silent book club member Mary's April reading

Silent book club member Vicki's April reading, with Vicki on a computer screen getting reading for a zoom meeting

Even mid-month, on short notice, our combined reading list boasts of plenty. 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).

The works of Miriam Toews are much beloved in this group, and we know we’re not alone or unique among readers and book groups. Toews’ oeuvre is rooted semi-autobiographically in the oppressive Canadian Mennonite community. Each book delves into how spirited protagonists and their families either cope or don’t, either escape or don’t, the fierce restrictions and expectations of the religion. Dark as that sounds, Toews’ themes and circumstances are tragicomic, meaning the darkness is leavened with sometimes astonishing and life-affirming humour.

How perfect, then, that film distributor Mongrel Media wisely assessed that a group like ours would be very interested in the movie version of Toews’ 2014 novel All My Puny Sorrows, and offered us passes to an advance screening. All who attended agreed that the movie is a splendid and accurate rendering of the book, well cast and beautifully presented on all levels. Here is a lovely interview with the stars, Sarah Gadon and Alison Pill, and an equally lovely review in The Globe and Mail by Johanna Schneller.

The book All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews sits on a table with a print-out of a movie review and a glass of white wine

Our previous silent book club reports (for online and in-person meetings) and book lists are always available for you to enjoy and get some reading inspiration right here.

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 or modified schedules, 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.

Becoming the reader you want to be

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Toronto silent book club member Dawn Power offers a truly inspiring introduction to our latest silent book club meeting report. Dawn is a retired actuary who moved to Toronto from Winnipeg five years ago to be closer to her family. She is currently working on reviving her reading life – and wow, as she does so, she sparks the interests, imagination and reading lists of her fellow book club members!

Dawn Power, reader extraordinaireAfter receiving an offer I didn’t want to refuse, I decided to retire from actuarial consulting years earlier than planned — our oldest daughter, at the urging of her husband, asked if we would be interested in living with her family (my daughter, her husband and our two year old granddaughter) if they were able to find a house with a suitable space for her father and me. (The Universe must have been paying attention when a year earlier, as I read about a helpful grandmother living with her daughter’s family in their basement “granny suite”, I thought “I’d like that.”)

They found a house, we divested ourselves of most of our belongings, and moved to Toronto (from Winnipeg) in 2017. Our second granddaughter was born later that year. And, over the next few years, our other two daughters each bought houses within walking distance of our new digs.

But looking after my grandchildren, although delightful, doesn’t fill all my time, especially not when they keep growing and heading off to school!

What to do, what to do?

I was not much of a reader as a child; while my twin sister devoured all books, I had to be coaxed to read … for years. (Relative to my twin, I was slow at everything – crawling, bike riding, swimming, understanding calculus …) I finally started to read after an older sister took me to the library and pulled books off the shelf – mostly Enid Blyton to start, then later Agatha Christie mysteries and Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances. But later, with required reading for University courses and professional exams, full-time employment, eventually three daughters, and a penchant for losing sleep to finish books, I mostly stopped reading, for pleasure, that is. I continued to read for work, of course – generally very close reads of legislation related to defined benefit pensions, and communications issued by my professional body, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (the other “CIA”!), important reading although “a little” dry.

It’s not that I didn’t want to read other things. From the start of the Canada Reads competition in 2002, I wanted to be that Canadian reader. Each year, with every new competition I was reminded again and again of the reader I wanted to be. And every year, I fell short, with the exception of reading Miriam Toews’ A Complicated Kindness, the 2006 winner.

In 2019, I dipped a toe into the Canada Reads competition by reading 3 of the 5 contenders. About the same time, I heard of the Silent Book Club by way of a CBC radio interview with Vicki Ziegler, owner of this blog. Another dream come true.

As they say, if you want to get fit, hang around with fit people. And, if you want to read more, hang around with readers! The Silent Book Club has been like having an even bigger family (with more widely varying tastes) to recommend books to me.

Because I always know what I’m going to read next (so many great recommendations, how will I get to them all!), I’ve gone from reading nearly nothing each year to reading lots (in the first 3 months of this year I’ve already read more than 40 books). And even better, included in all those books, I’ve read more than half of the 105 Canada Reads contenders (from 2002 to 2022). I have started thinking about my next reading challenge but I may have to slow down a little – I’ve got a new grandson coming in April. I expect to listen to audiobooks though as I walk over for visits.

 

Take a look at what we’re reading, where we’re reading and who we’re reading with these days.

Todd reads on transit

Beth's new reading chair

Lyla's reading space

Philippa's reading space

Emily's reading companion, Delta

Emily's reading companion, Delta

Vicki's reading companion, Jake

Vicki's poetry selection, on keyboard, with book club zoom meeting on the screen

Anne-Louise's books

One of Kath's books

Philippa's books

Philippa's notebook

Sue R's books

Sven and Jenn's books

One of Lyla's books

One of Lyla's books

One of Lyla's books

One of Lyla's books
Our combined reading list – always reflecting the recent reading of many of our members, whether they are in attendance or not – is particularly bountiful this month because it covers reading lists from two meetings instead of just one. 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 reports (for online and in-person meetings) and book lists are always available for you to enjoy and get some reading inspiration right here.

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 or modified schedules, 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.

Are you becoming the reader you want to be?

The gift of a book is a gift for many

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It’s my birthday this week.

The greatest gift I can imagine is if you give yourself the gift of a book. Here are my suggestions about how to go about that. Add your comment here (or visit me on Twitter @bookgaga or Instagram @vzbookgaga) and let me know what you got, OK?

Happy birthday … to all of us!

Stack of books with purple ribbon

If you purchase from an independent bookseller, it’s also a gift to those hardworking people and businesses. Maybe you already have a fave that you support, or you can find one here:

Pre-ordering books is not only “a present to your future self” … it’s also a gift to tireless and determined authors and publishers.

Learn more here (via The Week) and here (via Book Riot).

If you can meld your book purchase with support for Ukraine, how beautiful that would be.

Some ideas? The Kobzar Book Award (launched in 2003 as an initiative of the Shevchenko Foundation), which celebrates Canadian literary works with tangible connection to the experiences of Ukrainian Canadians, has winners and shortlists spanning genres.

Literary Hub has some tantalizing suggestions, too.

Books are always vital, perhaps now more than ever. Whether we turn to them for diversion, solace, education or inspiration, they are what bolster us to face the world’s challenges. Their essential truths help us to discern and to combat when words are twisted to undermine and harm what we respect and hold dear.