Introverts unite (silently): A Fredericton book club finds community in the quiet

Prapti Bamaniya · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 16, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

As the prima acceptable connected the Fredericton Public Library, readers gathered and picked their ain country of the gathering to settee into. Some reclined connected beanbags, immoderate perched connected stools. At precisely 6:30, the country went silent. 

For an hour, cipher spoke. They conscionable read.

That's the dependable of the soundless publication nine successful Fredericton. There are 15,000 chapters of soundless publication clubs successful much than 50 countries.

Laura Peters is 1 of the organizers of the section successful Fredericton, which celebrated its one-year day successful February. 

LISTEN | The pressure-free entreaty of a soundless publication club: 

"It's a spot wherever everyone is welcome and you ne'er person the societal pressures of a accepted publication club," Peters said. "This hr tin beryllium immoderate you privation it to be."

She and her daughter, Amelia Peters, greeted radical astatine the door, wherever members wrote the sanction of the publication they were speechmaking and dropped disconnected a publication they brought for an speech for later. 

"It is simply a precise important publication nine for a batch of people," said Laura Peters. "It brings a batch of radical unneurotic and I cognize truthful galore radical person met others done this publication nine and it's specified a large spot."

Amelia remembers the archetypal soundless publication nine gathering astir a twelvemonth agone astatine Picaroons brewery. 

She, her mother, and a person got retired of the car and waited a fewer minutes. When they saw idiosyncratic carrying a publication retired of their car, they each got excited.

"My ma and her person weren't expecting anyone and we started cheering unneurotic erstwhile we saw that archetypal person."

Peters said astir 40 radical were astatine that archetypal event. 

Now, astatine their one-year anniversary, determination were 114. 

Some of those radical had been determination since the archetypal day, including Vee Mariner. 

"I've been coming whenever I tin … it's a spot wherever I've made friends, brought friends, and is determination I tin perfectly conscionable beryllium myself and read." 

Mother and girl Donna and Anna Houston fto retired a large suspiration aft the hr and smiled astatine each different arsenic they closed their books. 

"I similar to telephone it a societal gathering for immoderate introverts," Donna Houston said. 

Anna agreed.

"We tin beryllium chatty people, but it's inactive a bully spot for us, too." 

Other than speechmaking broadside by side, radical besides brought immoderate books to exchange. They were each wrapped successful insubstantial truthful you can't spot the cover. All that's determination to judge is a sticky enactment with the archetypal condemnation of the book.

"It's a accidental to work a publication you mightiness not ever scope for," Dana Newman said. "I can't hold to ace this 1 unfastened astatine the adjacent meeting."

For immoderate people, socializing is the hard part, but reading, and doing it silently with others, is wherever they find comfort.

"For galore of america we bask an flight from reality," said Laura Peters. "Just cognize that whoever you are, erstwhile you travel to the soundless publication club, we invited you."

After an hr and a half, the readers filed retired of the library. It was empty and quiescent again, until the next soundless publication club.