On a Saturday morning in April, readers gathered in a park in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta for a monthly book club. Around 260 strangers sat on the grass, heads down, captivated by what they were reading.
It almost looked like a regular book club, but there was a twist.
Everyone here was reading something different: from fantasy, romance and religion to business and self-help books. Titles read included Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie, The Vegetarian by Nobel laureate Han Kang, and The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.
Non-traditional book clubs have gained momentum around the world in recent years.
Silent Book Club Jakarta is part of a movement that spans from the US to Taiwan, where readers reject the traditional book club format and bring a novel of their own choice and no judgment for uninterrupted reading time.
Silent Book Club’s premise avoids many of the things people do not like about traditional book clubs: the monthly book pick, questions and quarrels about how people interpreted it, and pressure to read it.