Silent Book Club Is an Introvert’s Paradise — Celebrating 10 Years of the Popular Reading Community (Exclusive)

One hot club is steadily becoming the place to be, but it doesn’t have pulsing music or flashing strobe lights. In fact, it requires the complete opposite.

You may have seen an advertisement for a Silent Book Club meetup in your city. Participants gather in a central location, and bring their own books to read for a set number of minutes. A moderator will then encourage guests to break out into small groups and discuss what they’re reading with other patrons.

Harkening back to the Silent Reading Time you may remember from elementary school, Silent Book Club has thousands of chapters in over 55 countries. The global community has garnered national news attention, and praise from book lovers like bestselling author Susan Cain to literary advocate Oprah Winfrey.

This year, the phenomenon lovingly dubbed “Introvert happy hour” celebrates its 10th anniversary — something cofounders Laura Gluhanich and Guinevere de la Mare still can’t believe.

“I don’t think I ever thought, “Oh, 10 years from now, we’re going to have more than a million people gathering to read regularly,” Gluhanich tells PEOPLE.

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The beginnings of what would become Silent Book Club started in 2012, when Gluhanich and de la Mare would read together at their neighborhood wine bar in San Francisco. Soon, their friends wanted to join their informal meetups, which proved to be a great alternative to the structured format of typical book clubs. Gluhanich and de la Mare officially launched Silent Book Club in 2015.

“We really wanted to break down the barriers of traditional book clubs, where there’s an assigned book and you have to have your discussion questions and stick to the topic,” de la Mare says. “We wanted to eliminate that pressure and create a space for people to just come together around a shared passion for reading.”

As such, there are no set guidelines for what a Silent Book Club soiree can look like, de la Mare says. Members have hosted gatherings in parks in Indonesia, and taken over the streets in South Africa. One South Carolina chapter has a partnership with local museums, and regularly meets amongst the artwork.

In a time when bookworms have their own dedicated communities on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, and celebrities from Dua Lipa to Jenna Bush Hager uplift literature through their monthly book clubs, reading is definitely in the zeitgeist. But the craving for in-person bookish communities, particularly post-pandemic, is part of Silent Book Club’s appeal too.

“There’s a resurgence in reading and in-person connection,” Gluhanich says. “Silent Book Club meetups and offshoots are really tapping into that … we’ve seen a really sharp growth in the last couple of years, and I think it just pairs really well with that trend.” Another benefit of the events is supporting the community spaces where they’re held.

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But what’s been most exciting for the founders is watching people of all ages, backgrounds and reading tastes coming together.

“If we have 10 people at an event, there’ll be five to eight different genres,” Gluhanich says. “People read self-help, they read romantasy, classics, poetry. It’s really lovely to see.”

There’s more in store for Silent Book Club in honor of its 10th anniversary, including global readathons and international reading retreats. But for those who are still questioning whether to join a local chapter, the founders have some words of advice.

“If it’s not the right fit, you can leave and no one’s going to be offended,” Gluhanich says. “It is so low-key. And it is a great transition back into getting outside, engaging with the community, if it’s not something you’ve necessarily done.”

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“I’m somebody who hates small talk,” de la Mare adds. “I will be already panicking about running out of things to say while I’m two sentences into an interaction. What I love about Silent Book Club’s structure is that you have your talking points in your hands. You can talk about the book and that is the greatest conversation starter.”

Silent Book Clubs have also left a lasting impression, much like the final pages of a good book.

“We’ve seen relationships start, we’ve seen marriages, we’ve seen babies,” de la Mare says. “These are communities that are lasting and that are really meaningful.”

“These spaces are really welcoming and open, and filled with people who love learning and love reading,” Gluhanich adds. “That’s like the barrier to entry, but if you fall in that bucket, it is a great space to find others like you. They may not look like you, they may not read the same thing, and that’s part of the fun.”

For more information about Silent Book Club, or to learn how to start your own chapter, visit their website.