Come as You Are... as Long as You Have a Book
- Abby Thomas
- 8 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Candles dance atop a glorious dark chocolate, Earl Grey cake decorated with bright red flowers and fat juicy blackberries: A birthday cake. For a book club.
Silent Book Club celebrates its second birthday in the warm glow of The Sun Room at the Drift Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.
Although, “silent” remains up for debate.
WNXP’s Marquis Munson DJs on the edge of the room, surrounding the readers in the subtle sounds of Olivia Dean, Bon Iver and Frank Ocean.
Serving as an “introvert happy hour,” attendees walk in as strangers and leave as friends.
Friends of Ali Perkins, founder of the Nashville branch of Silent Book Club, tell her if they wanted to read, they would just stay home, but she emphasizes what the club really stands for.
“It's about more than that,” Perkins said. “It's not just about reading your book. It's about being in a community of like-minded people.”
Everyone who walks into The Sun Room couldn’t look more different from one another, yet they all walk in for the same reason: to read.
Unlike a typical book club, Silent Book Club gives everyone the freedom to choose their own book to read in tandem with others.
While some people are often turned off from a book club because of the requirement of reading the same book, readers won’t find the same principle here.
“It's amazing to have a space where regardless of what everybody's reading, they're reading,” Lauren Boyd, Perkins’ co-host, said. “People are picking up books and reading rather than playing on their phones.”
Although typically an individual activity, reading serves as a major catalyst for community-building for book lovers.
This book club celebrates the joy of a quiet group of readers uniting over their shared paradise, creating new friendships and community in the process.
“It's amazing to be in a room with this many people that like the same thing I do,” Boyd smiled.
Halfway through the night Perkins halts everyone’s reading and muffled chit-chat to take a “book stack photo,” perfectly placing everyone’s books in stacks and showcasing the well-loved spines of each one.
The diversity of the attendees is reflected in their book choices.
Emily Henry’s joyous “Funny Story” inspires readers to believe in finding love in unexpected people.
Another reader enters a revengeful witchcraft-filled world in “Consensual Hex” by Amanda Harlow.
And Jesmyn Ward’s commentary on motherhood in Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Mississippi in “Salvage the Bones” haunts the reader.
One night, Perkins even noticed a man flipping through a hefty coffee table book filled with jaw-dropping photos of national parks.
“Everybody can read what makes them happy,” Perkins said cheerfully.
The mission statement of Silent Book Club states its goal is “to unite a global community of book lovers through the shared joy of reading together.”
This mission sprouted from the lives of two women-- Guinevere de la Mare and Laura Gluhanich-- in San Francisco, California in 2012.
Rather than going out on the town and waking up sleep deprived, these women discovered the best night out entailed a calm night sitting at a wine bar with a good book.
Silent Book Club took shape.
Twelve years later, Perkins eagerly sought to join the Nashville branch, before realizing it didn’t exist.
So, what did she do? She created her own.
Ellie Porter, a frequent Silent Book Club goer, values the opportunity it gives her to reconnect with books.
“Reading is something that I enjoyed doing as a kid,” Porter said. “Things are always busy, so it's been nice to kind of reconnect with something that I enjoyed doing in childhood.”
In an increasingly divisive and broken world, resorting back to childhood joys and escaping into a captivating story can open hearts and broaden capacities for empathy.
“I always tell people that when you read, and especially when you read outside of your experiences, you learn empathy,” Boyd said. “Reading is to teach you experiences that are unlike your own… it neurologically changes your brain.”
She also emphasizes the importance of reading various genres.
“You have to read outside of your experiences, because it teaches you how other humans think and feel and act, and that is literally 101 of empathy,” Boyd said.
Boyd is not the only one who feels empathy and connection are more important than ever.
Books serve as a tool to escape reality and find hope in what can feel like dark times.
Silent Book Club attendee Emma Headley drew on her own experience as a quantitative methods master’s student at Vanderbilt University to explain why this community is important to her:
“My lab has literally done research on negative news and how it impacts queer adults and their suicide outcomes, and it's not great,” Headley said with a defeated laugh. “So, it’s good to have this!”
Headley met one of her best friends, Brigit Rohrbaugh, on “Bookstagram” and this birthday party served as their first Silent Book Club outing together.
At first, Rohrbaugh didn’t know a genuine community of fellow readers existed.
But after finding Bookstagram two years ago and meeting Headley, she discovered her people.
“When I found Bookstagram and then found book club, it gave me the ability to go be a reader with people and not have those things be treated as mutually exclusive,” Rohrbaugh said.
Still, her focus remains on the good.
“We can't really keep fighting against what's happening if we forget what makes us happy,” Rohrbaugh said.
Rohrbaugh and Headley are among the mix of regulars and first-timers who surround Perkins, the colorful book stacks and the decadent cake.
Before blowing out the candles, Perkins takes a few beats to reflect on the past two years and express gratitude.
“I started this really just because I wanted to read,” Perkins giggled, looking at the semi-circle around her, eyes glistening. “Thank you for all being a part of this amazing community!”
Perkins blows out the candles on her cake to a chorus of cheers from the community she helped create.
Written by Abby Thomas