Tried a 'silent reading party' with my book club and it was weirdly great

Last month our usual debate session turned into a shouting match over character motivations, so I proposed we just sit and read for an hour instead. Everyone brought their own book, no talking allowed, just coffee and page turning. I figured people would hate it, but three people told me it was the most relaxed they'd felt all week. Has anyone else tried a nontraditional meeting format that actually worked better than expected?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona_murphy26d ago

My book club did a "cooking challenge" once where we all had to bring a dish inspired by our current read. I brought a stew from a fantasy novel, someone else did a dessert from a romance. It was messy and chaotic but honestly way more fun than our regular discussions. We ended up talking more about the food than the books, but that was okay because it broke the ice. The group felt closer after that, and we still do it every few months when discussions get stale. I think people just need a break from forced conversation sometimes.

johnson.paul26d ago

That's cool and all but it sounds like you guys just got tired of pretending to care about the books lol. Nothing wrong with that though, sometimes you just want to eat and shoot the breeze instead of analyzing metaphors.

chen.adam25d ago

Five bucks says @fiona_murphy's fantasy stew involved some kind of mysterious mushroom that nobody could identify but everyone ate anyway... classic book club chaos. Honestly though, food beats forced literary analysis any day. At least when the conversation dies you can just shovel pie in your mouth and pretend you're thinking deep thoughts about the author's symbolism. Plus nobody gets exiled for saying the main character is boring when they're eating.