Read, hang out, talk books, repeat.
Book lovers rejoice! The Silent Reading Party is coming to a bookstore near you. The Fox Cities Book Festival hosts its first Silent Reading Party on Wednesday, February 27, from 6 to 8 pm at The Book Store in Appleton.
Silent reading parties have come to find a home in bookstores, coffee shops, pubs, and elsewhere within cities and communities across not only the nation, but also the globe. These events go by many names: Silent Book Clubs, Public Reading Parties, or even the Introvert’s Happy Hour.
These quiet evenings out started nearly a decade ago on the West Coast. Editor-in-chief of a Seattle weekly Newspaper called The Stranger, Christopher Frizzelle, pioneered the idea of informal gatherings of peers to indulge in an evening of silent comradery though food, drink, and – of course – reading. Silent reading parties give people a chance to simultaneously socialize and remain in their own world of whatever they bring to their own reading table. There is even a website devoted to tracking these parties, and step-by-step instructions on how to start a local chapter.
What started out as a small group of people looking to escape for a night among friends and fellow-reading-fanatics has evolved into an international movement. From Brooklyn, New York, to Umeå, Sweden, to Ku ala Lumpur, Malaysia, to your own backyard, silent reading parties have become the latest way of celebrating and sharing with others the adage of losing oneself in a good book.
It’s like a book club, without the homework.
But don’t take our word for it. Join the silent reading party and see for yourself! No agenda, no rules, just a couple of minutes to mingle, and an hour or two to read.
All dressed up and no book to bring? Show up to the party anyway and find something new to crack into. The Book Store in Appleton will also have copies of the Fox Cities Reads 2019 featured selection “Evicted: Poverty & Profit in the American City,” available for purchase.
Suggested donation at the door of $10 in support of Fox Cities Reads 2019 and the Fox Cities Book Festival. Find out more about the event details on Fox Cities Book Festival’s Facebook events page.
