PHILADELPHIA — At Philly’s silent book club, there is no required reading, no forced discussion, and for an hour at a time, no talking at all. Described by its national founders as “introvert happy hour,” the monthly reading group is a space for people who don’t know one another to gather and read their own books together in companionable silence.
It’s a very popular club.
“I’ve always wanted to join a book club, but it’s hard to always read what everyone else is reading,” said Chary Martin, 32, who founded the Philly chapter of Silent Book Club in August.
A kindergarten teacher at a Mastery Charter school in Camden, Martin is perhaps particularly well-suited to facilitating quiet group reading time. She carries a pencil bag printed with the words “Reading is Lit” and crafts every returning reader a special bookmark.
Silent Book Club was originally conceived in 2012 by two women in San Francisco who got together to read with their friends at a neighborhood bar after previous attempts at more “traditional” book clubs fizzled. Since then, more than 500 chapters have launched in 50 countries.
As a child, Martin loved to read, but she found herself doing it less and less as she got older, until the pandemic. When she learned of Silent Book Club, she knew she wanted to start a local chapter. Attendance has grown steadily month by month.
“Hi everybody! It’s time to read!” Martin announced enthusiastically on a recent Sunday afternoon in the basement of Chapterhouse Cafe & Gallery in South Philly. Silent reading would last one hour.
“After that hour, we’ll just get together and talk for a little longer. Or not talk,” Martin said. “You don’t have to — that’s fine.”
The assembled group of nearly 30 readers settled in with their hardbacks and Kindles, sipping from iced coffees and herbal teas. For a few minutes, a group continued to chatter, until Martin gently but firmly reminded them it was “time to read.”
Attendees were of all ages; the majority were women, and about a third were new to the group. Phones stayed mostly out of sight. It felt like a library, with a more purposeful, collective energy. Sometimes unaware customers stepped into the room, noted the silent reading masses, and quickly turned around.
Hannah Hartsfield, 27, had planned to spend the afternoon reading by herself in a comfy black armchair at Chapterhouse. Though she is a member of the Philly Silent Book Club Facebook page, she had not yet attended a meeting and didn’t know it was scheduled. But once she was settled into her chair, Silent Book Club materialized around her.
“I didn’t know this was book club, but now I’m very invested,” she said, holding up “Piranesi” by Susanna Clarke.
Some attendees were fully new to book clubs; others were high-level experts. Carolyn Steinberg, 35, who has attended Silent Book Club since its second meeting, is also part of two other more conventional book clubs in her Fairmount neighborhood. Kim Klinck, 31, is a member of three others and was reading on deadline for one of them. She appreciates the comparatively stress-free nature of Silent Book Club.
“There’s no pressure to think of anything clever to say,” Klinck said. “When I go to a book club where everyone read the same book, I’m like, ‘I need to think of what I’m going to say before I go.’ “
After reading time ended, attendees gathered in a circle to share their names and book titles. There was no judgment about genre: some were reading fantasy trilogies, others, true crime or poetry. One woman listened to a romance novel on audiobook. Books included “Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver”; “Wildfire” by Hannah Grace; “Him, Me, Muhammad Ali” by Randa Jarrar, and “The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles” by Malka Older, which a reader described as a “cozy murder mystery with Sapphic romance set at a university that is on Jupiter.”
Yoko Takahashi, 47 and wearing a dress patterned with illustrated bookshelves, learned about Silent Book Club from a neurodivergent memes page on Facebook. The West Philly resident identifies as an introvert.
“It’s nice to be able to chat,” she said, “but also to have quiet time to read.”
