SINGAPORE – The faint beep of a distant cashier machine, ice cubes clinking in a takeaway cup, a pen dropping onto the carpeted floor.

These are sounds easily missed on a typical day, but become resoundingly clear once a month at the Silent Book Club meeting in an isolated corner deep within CIMB Plaza in Raffles Place.

Unlike traditional book clubs, where members discuss topics from an assigned book, the Silent Book Club is a global community of bookworms who gather to read in silent camaraderie, touting its free-for-all meetings as “Introvert Happy Hour”.

Its Singapore chapter meets for two hours on the third Saturday of every month and is organised by Ms Sisilia Kodyat, who invited The Straits Times to sit in for a session on Jan 20.

Ms Kodyat, who works in the finance sector, starts the session by facilitating introductions where each member declares what book he or she is tackling for the afternoon. The 45-year-old then sets a timer for 1½ hours and everyone knuckles down to read.

As with any group meeting, there are latecomers. But latecomers of the Silent Book Club creep in so quietly that others barely notice their presence until the end of the session.

There are also the occasional drilling noises from renovations at Clifford Centre next door, but even this does not faze the eight club members, who remain engrossed in their books.

Some have taken along hardcopy books, while others use electronic devices such as Kindles or iPads.

Ms Kodyat switches off the alarm a minute before it is slated to go off to maintain the tranquillity of the session till the very end, and the meeting concludes with a few quiet exchanges within the group.

Ms Michelle Zhang, a 24-year-old marketing executive who attended the club for the first time that day, says she enjoys how members share books with one another, as it is a good way to broaden her reading horizons.

She adds that she prefers this to traditional book clubs where everyone is made to read the same book.

Auditor Luke Shih, 30, joined the club in 2021 because he wanted to meet like-minded people after moving to Singapore from Canada.

Now a regular member, he says the meetings take his mind off work and stressful situations, giving him two hours every month to read without distractions.

“I like that I feel compelled to come here to relax and forget other things,” he says.

Ms Monika Puhazhendhi, a software designer, also joined the club in 2021 and became a regular as the meetings bring her a sense of comfort.

The 31-year-old says: “This club works well for an introverted mindset. You can just read and not have to go out of your way to interact (with others).”

“There’s also this feeling of comfort here for me, because I think everybody here is like this,” she adds. “Most people seem to get the same amount of comfort from reading silently in this shared space.”

Ms Kodyat, who grew up in Indonesia, tells ST that she takes turns with her friends Jennifer Tan and Astrid Astuti to host the meetings, adding that the book club started with her and Ms Tan getting together on weekends to catch up on their reading.

She says: “We are very busy with our life and our work. Most of the time when we reach home after work, we have no energy to read. And even if we do, there are a lot of distractions.”

She and Ms Tan eventually decided to turn their meetings into a book club hosted at the Singapore Land Tower Starbucks outlet, and registered it officially with the global Silent Book Club community in May 2022.

The Silent Book Club movement has more than 500 chapters in 50 countries led by volunteers such as Ms Kodyat.

The Singapore chapter, which is available to join only through social media platform Meetup, now has 744 registered members. With five to eight regulars who show up consistently every month, it is a number that has been growing steadily.

However, Ms Kodyat limits each session to only 12 participants and often has to waitlist interested parties due to space constraints.

As the club expanded and eateries got more crowded after the pandemic ended, she found that it became increasingly difficult to maintain the intimate and peaceful setting of the book club.

She then discovered the club’s current spot in CIMB Plaza, which is a public seating area set up by the building’s management.

But this also means that Ms Kodyat cannot predict how many mallgoers might be using the space, and cannot guarantee that there will be enough seats should the group expand beyond 12 members at a time.

While she is looking to expand the book club’s capacity to 20 participants, she and her co-organisers have concerns about how a bigger group may change the dynamics of the club.

Ms Tan, 44, says one of her favourite parts of the Silent Book Club is the conversations about what they are reading, one another’s literary interests and swopping book recommendations.

She says: “I like a smaller, more intimate group. While we don’t have assigned readings, we still care what each of us reads.”

She adds that it would be more difficult to have such conversations in a larger group and hopes they can find a more permanent venue that can accommodate more readers while keeping the club’s personal touch.

Another local silent book club, run by Wardah Books owner Ibrahim Tahir, faces the opposite issue. 

Mr Tahir’s silent book club, held at his Kampong Glam bookstore on the first Sunday of every month, started as online Zoom meetings in 2020 as a way for the bookstore to promote reading and bring back a social element for its community during the pandemic. But it has suffered dwindling membership since.

As the meetings were online, the book club attracted participants across the region and had about 20 active members.

He says: “For time-starved people, having this kind of commitment to come down to a place and read for an hour helps them have a sort of accountability to reading.”

Mr Tahir says many members then were Malaysians who were friends and reminded one another to log into sessions.

But as the pandemic ended and the club transitioned to in-person meetings, the number of members gradually dwindled until Mr Tahir found himself reading alone.

Wardah Books’ silent reading club is now on a hiatus as Mr Tahir brainstorms how to revive the community.

Reflecting on the differences between the silent book club and the other active book clubs Wardah Books organises, Mr Tahir says one of his club’s shortcomings is that it placed more emphasis on the “silent” aspect and not enough on the “social”.

He says: “One of the reasons book clubs succeed is because of a social element. People may not initially be friends, but after a while, they get comfortable and find it’s a safe place to share their ideas and become genuine friends who see one another regularly.

“So, you come not just for discussing books, but because birds of a feather flock together. This social element recognises that readers, while they read in solitude, are also communing in different ways with other people.”

Other unique book clubs:

Read Aloud SG Club

If silent reading is not for you, check out its polar opposite: the Read Aloud Club. Run by Ms Liau Yun Qing, the club was inspired by her memories of her father reading to her as a child.

While the club does assign books, the Read Aloud Club does not require members to do prior reading, as the group will be on the same page – literally – as they take turns reading out loud together.

Where: library@orchard, 03-12 and 04-11 orchardgateway, 277 Orchard Road
When: First Saturday of every month, typically from 11.30am to 1pm
Admission: Free, RSVP on Meetup
Info: meetup.com/readaloudsg

Wardah Books’ Kids Book Club

Wardah Books specialises in literature for Muslim readers and hosts a book club exploring children’s books featuring Muslim characters.

Meant for kids aged between nine and 13 years old, the group meets about four times a year to coincide with the school holidays.

Where: Wardah Books, 58 Bussorah Street
When: March 10, 11am to 12pm
Admission: Free, no registration required
Info: str.sg/SZEG

Chunksters Book Club

Do you have a chunky book just sitting on your shelf collecting dust? Have you been putting off reading it because it is just too daunting to go through all those pages?

The Chunksters Book Club is a moral support group for readers to get through such long and difficult reads (“chunksters”) together.

Where: Virtual meeting
When: Once in May and once in November, with some additional meetings in between
Admission: Free, RSVP on Meetup
Info: str.sg/Nndt