Bay Area book clubs are going silent
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In need of a book club without the pressure of reading assigned material and coming up with original discussion points? A silent book club might be the thing for you.
The big picture: Silent Book Club (SBC) started in San Francisco in 2012 with two friends who chose to read together at a neighborhood wine bar.
- Three years later, they made it an official organization that has expanded to nearly 2,000 chapters in 57 countries.
How it works: Instead of reading a selected book together, SBC members bring their own book, gathering at a set time and location to indulge in a period of sustained silent reading and to share what they're reading.
- Each club has its own vibe, but the goal is universal — finding a little quiet time to read.
"There's no set agenda, no assignment to all read the same book, no pressure to come up with clever 'takes,'" Lyn Davidson, an adult services manager at the San Francisco Public Library's (SFPL) Richmond location who has participated in the branch's SBC, told Axios via email.
- "I've started to think of our Silent Book Club as an important kind of resistance to the over-commercialized, politically fractured, algorithm-driven world being built up around us without our consent."
Zoom in: The Bay Area is home to a litany of such clubs, including two hosted by SFPL.
Marina Sobolevskaya, adult services librarian at the SFPL's Richmond location, first heard about the concept in 2021 from a colleague who mentioned that the group meets in different places around the city and that someone had even facilitated a session in Russian.
- She helped establish a chapter at the SFPL's Richmond branch in early 2023. The club meets every other week with seven to 10 patrons of all ages who often seek out books others have shared, she said.
- An out-of-state visitor even dropped by a recent meeting to share a historical guidebook about San Francisco that was new to many group members.
The SFPL Chinatown branch's SBC began the same year, when a patron who'd attended the Richmond club's sessions asked if it could offer the same program, the library's adult services manager, Chao Qun Huang, recalled.
- The club consists of three regular attendees — two young professionals and a retiree — as well as five others who stop in when they can, adult services librarian Deanna Constable told Axios.
- "It truly feels like a third place for a community of varied readers to find a quiet and friendly place to be and to enjoy," Constable said.
Get reading: While the two clubs meet at the library, others around the Bay congregate at local businesses, such as cafes, bookstores and breweries.
- The non-SFPL-affiliated San Francisco SBC also does monthly meetings online.
- Find a local chapter or start one yourself by visiting Silent Book Club's website.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with corrected information from the SFPL reflecting that Marina Sobolevskaya is at the Richmond (not Mission) branch.