Where are here and there … when you’re reading and when you’re with fellow readers?

I’m guessing our sense of place – both collective and individual – has changed significantly in very recent years. Where we are when we are here, when we are meeting, when we are with someone and so on has sharp new meanings when coupled with how we resorted to social media platforms or different renditions of virtual connection to stay in contact (one definition of contact, anyhow) when we were not able to be in physical proximity or contact. I won’t fill this blog post with too many meandering thoughts about what we might still be going through with respect to connecting or not connecting and what that means, because I do want to get to the latest brimming and delicious book list our group has amassed. But here are some questions and thoughts that popped up for me as I was prepping this month’s silent book club report:

  • When we meet virtually with fellow readers, even if most of those gathering are within walking distance of each other, is someone zooming with us from across a border or an ocean here with us? (The edges of east end Toronto extend here and here, so my answer is a hearty “yes!”)
  • When we meet in person on a patio, in a park or in a coffee shop with fellow readers from the neighbourhood, is the here that location or is the here the places we inhabit in our books once we’re reading silently together?
  • When we are reading by ourselves in our living room or on our balcony or porch or cottage dock, are we there with our other fellow readers, too … while we’re here wherever our books have taken us, as well as here in a comfy reading spot?

In some ways, maybe it’s neither here nor there, eh? We’re blessed to be able to read, we’re fortunate to have access to many ways to read, we’re privileged (in all good senses of that word that remain) to read what we want to read when we want to read it – and to lend our voices on behalf of those being deprived of that right.

Here (see what I did there?) are some of the places our readers and their books were this past month:

Silent book club member Philippa visited the Grolier Poetry Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts
(Here’s an interesting piece from The Paris Review in 2013 on this destination literary landmark.)

Silent book club member Philippa visiting the Grolier Poetry Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts - Elegantly bespectacled and wearing a green-gray blazer and white and green scarf, Philippa gestures to the book table beside her. She is surrounded by tall bookshelves and pictures of poets on the walls.

Bookshelves of Canadian poetry at the Grolier Poetry Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts

More bookshelves at the Grolier Poetry Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the tail of a beagle visible in the bottom righthand corner of the picture

Books arranged on a desk, with a Snoopy mug, including Dearly by Margaret Atwood, Emma by Alexander McCall Smith and more

Silent book club member Mary's beagle Abby guards Mary's stack of books, including The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy

Silent book club member Kathryn (at the Wales side of east end Toronto) stacks her books in a chair with a cushion with the caption

New Zealand silent book club member Marilyn's books are stacked on the seat of a lovely red/pink chair with a red and gold multi-hued cushion. Books include Wild Honey - Reading New Zealand Women's Poetry by Paula Green

Sometimes other activities – like piloting an inflatable loon on a northern Ontario lake – distract one from proper cottaging activities like reading. But then again, with a beverage holder and some way to protect one’s books or reading devices from the water, an inflatable loon on a northern Ontario lake would be as dreamy a reading place as a hammock … just sayin’ …

Silent book club member Vicki, wearing swim trunks, a life vest, a green neon Tilley hat and wielding a canoe paddle, rides an inflatable loon on a northern Ontario lake

Silent book club member Vicki leans back in an inflatable loon, wearing a life vest, a green neon Tilley hat and sunglasses, contemplating how to read in such a comfy setting

Here (yes, here) is our group’s latest combined book list, gathering up books mentioned and discussed at our end of July meeting. Each list reflects the reading of many of our members. Many provide their reading lists even when they can’t attend a meeting. The titles featured in each of our reports encompass print and digital versions of books, along with audiobooks.

Any title on any of our group’s lists means that at least one (but often more) readers have given that title some consideration. That’s encouragement for you and other readers checking out our reports and lists to consider it, too. Is that a recommendation? It might be, but not exactly or necessarily. (This is rare, but a reader confided this month that one of the titles on this list offered one of their worst reading experiences ever …) That said, that same title might be one of your best reading experiences – who knows? Inclusion on this list always means that a title has been given thoughtful consideration and attention by our readers, which counts for a lot.

Some other silent book club and reading items of interest …

  • Here’s what looks like a wonderful there for silent book club members in New Zealand to meet!
  • A reader in Seattle has the broader silent book club network abuzz, thanks to her excited discovery and effusive praise of the silent (maybe not so silent?) book club experience.

    Silent Book Club “head office” offers an email listserv for those who organize and manage sbc chapters around the world, and that community is talking up a storm about the wave of interest and influx of new member requests that @hellomandyo’s video has generated. (Yes, we’ve welcomed lots of new inquiries, too – and look forward to meeting some new readers in the months ahead!) Some chapters run significantly higher capacity events than others (more on that another day), and some chapters are still virtual versus in-person, so how one engages with each group is different. I imagine the delight in reading, reading together and sharing reading delights with other readers, as captured by @hellomandyo, is consistent across all chapters around the world!

Our previous reports and book lists are always available to interest and amaze, not to mention threatening to send your tbr pile toppling! The reports and lists are always right here, growing every month.

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. Every club is a different size, format (in-person, virtual or combinations) and vibe, so contact a club’s organizers beforehand if you have any questions or preferences. Please feel free to contact me for more information about our club and its offerings.

Here, there and everywhere, we hope your reading nurtures head and heart!

2 thoughts on “Where are here and there … when you’re reading and when you’re with fellow readers?

  1. Ilmu Forensik

    In the digital age, there is an abundance of reading-related content available online, as highlighted by the links and resources in the article. How do these supplementary materials enhance your group’s engagement with books and literature, and do they often lead to further discussions or explorations?

    Reply
    1. bookgaga Post author

      Thanks for asking! You might notice that a lot of our blog posts include a section of supplementary links that are usually recommended by our group’s readers. In other words, they are definitely seeking out more information online about the specific books and authors they’re reading, and about reading and book culture in general.

      Reply

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