It’s called a doof, but it’s actually all about quiet reading. There are beanbags, some chairs and a few shared tables, where readers sit (or lie) down and read their separate books. Maybe some music playing in the background. Book Doof’s founder calls it a social experience. But can people reading their separate books alone, together, really be social? Reading has long been a social activity. One early precursor to the modern book club was Anne Hutchinson’s Bible study group in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. Women met to discuss weekly sermons and religious texts, creating a space for debate and intellectual exchange at a time when many women lacked access to formal education. Since then, readers have gathered around books in homes, libraries, bars and literary societies. Today, reading communities also extend into mediated spaces: television, radio, podcasts and social media. The difference is in how these groups of readers connect through books. Conventional book clubs unite readers by discussing a mutually agreed, shared book. But in events like Book Doof, Silent Book Club, Reading Party and The Offline Club, there’s no assigned book: participants connect through the shared practice of reading. These events let readers read alone, together. Conversation is optional and people can come alone. They don’t have to perform sociability or literary expertise. Silent reading events offer readers a low-demand belonging: being present is enough. They don’t ask readers to choose between solitude and connection. They let them have both.Book Doof Book Doof holds events in Melbourne and recently, Canberra. Canberra Writers Festival Hoping to make reading “something you look forward to with other people”, Book Doof is “a rave for readers”. It recently held silent reading meet-ups at Melbourne’s Fed Square and Abbots Yard. You bring your own book. There is curated ambient music and you can read for the whole four hours with fellow readers. Bookish conversations do not drive the event; there is no required small talk and you can be social in silence.Book Doof just launched in Canberra, with a booked-out event supported by the Canberra Writers Festival. It promised the same “cosy sanctuary — an afternoon of reading, good tunes, and quiet community”. The same no-small-talk, no-book-club-discussion approach followed.Silent Book Club Silent Book Club has a forthcoming Sydney event. Instagram Silent reading events are not new, though. Silent Book Club has been gathering readers to read their separate books in the company of other readers since 2012. A “book club where you could just enjoy books, friends, and drinks — without any homework”, it follows the same BYO book format, with socialising not mandatory. Started in San Francisco by friends Guinevere de la Mare and Laura Gluhanich, Silent Book Club officially launched as an organisation in 2015. It now has more than 2,000 chapters in over 60 countries. The Sydney event was held at the Darling Square Library last weekend. It will recur on the second Sunday of each month. Reading Party Reading Party Melbourne is a silent reading party. Instagram Reading Party Melbourne is a silent reading party where readers bring their own book, have a drink, and read in a comfy spot in a boutique bar or restaurant. The tickets usually include a complimentary drink. It’s a space for readers to get off their phones and read with no distraction, where the founders promise there will be no judgement about what you read. Readers start reading for an hour when the bell rings. They can start socialising when the second bell rings – or continue reading if they prefer.The Offline ClubTaking the off-screen, no-phone-time idea further, The Offline Club, founded in Amsterdam in 2024, holds silent reading parties across the world. It debuted in Australia last year, with a series of events for Illuminate Adelaide. Offline Club debuted in Australia last year, for Illuminate Adelaide. Illuminate Adelaide Their recent Bali reading party kept the location secret until 48 hours before the event. It invited readers to a one-hour shared silent reading. The event urges readers to “prove that a room full of humans can still choose the page over the screen”. Their upcoming Amsterdam Reading Party also promises “a relaxing reading time free from digital distractions”. Readers are invited to leave their phones in a “phone hotel”. Those who prefer to keep their phones with them are encouraged to switch them off and keep them out of sight. The Offline reading parties, too, let readers bring any book and allow them to stick around to connect with other readers after the reading hour is up if they want to.Social reading onlineOnline reading communities – like BookTok, Bookstagram and BookTube – similarly don’t require readers to be reading the same book in order to participate. They connect through shared tastes, genres such as romance, tropes such as enemies-to-lovers or fake dating, book recommendations and emotional reactions.Like in silent reading events, these reading communities don’t necessarily connect through a shared book – though particular books and series can become common points of reference. Sometimes that connection is the act of reading, or identifying as a reader.Just like in silent reading parties and similar events that happen in physical spaces, belonging to an online reading community doesn’t require constant interaction. Members can choose if they want to post, comment, recommend books – or just lurk, reading or viewing what other readers post. Offline reading, organised onlineSome organisers genuinely frame silent reading parties as relief from screens. Many view them as antidotes to scrolling, or a backlash to the digital world. But people organise, book, discover and circulate these events digitally. Scholars call this “postdigital”: online and offline are now so intertwined, even attempts to stay away from screens are often organised through them.Part of what appeals to readers about these events is that simply being there is enough. There is also a kind of recognition in being surrounded by other people who have chosen to spend their time reading.Research on online reading communities has found that online reading can create both close-knit communities and looser forms of affiliation around a shared interest in books. Silent reading events make something similar possible in a physical space: you can look around and see other people doing the same thing you are, without needing to talk to them or even read the same book.The community is shared, while the reading can remain private.Taken together, these online and offline spaces suggest the social life of reading is not simply becoming more social. It is becoming more flexible. Readers can move in and out of community: talking, recommending and sharing when they want to, or simply reading alongside others when they don’t.Perhaps that is the appeal. Being part of a reading community no longer has to mean giving up the solitude that makes reading pleasurable in the first place.Shakiba Barghi receives funding from The University of Melbourne through Melbourne Research Scholarship.