Thoughts today on how collective silence can change time.
Last week I attended the first meeting of a new chapter of the Silent Book Club in a Pub relatively close to where I live. This was not a regular book club where people all read the same book in advance of the meeting and then sit and talk about the book together, this was quite different. We all arrived, got a drink from the bar, and then the ten of us sat together in a side room. After a few minutes of simple chat while we all settled, we then opened our books and started to read, silently. Once anyone felt they were done and had to leave, they got up, wordlessly, waved goodbye, and the others continued as long as they liked reading their book.
For someone who loves books, loves reading, and has read voraciously over most of my life, I have found it notable that I have read a lot less over recent years. Yes, some of this comes down to me starting to write daily on this site over six years (and 2,000+ posts, 1,000,000+ words) ago, as that is where some of the calm and focussed time I used to take to read has gone. That said, reading for lengths of time seems to be a habit I have got out of and feel I want to recapture.
For quite some time I did judge myself quite a lot about “not reading enough”, but that started to change about three years ago when I found Nick Parker’s book “On Reading“, which I wrote about in “The Unit of Reading is a Chapter“. He reframes books and reading wonderfully, including “Buy the damn book” and “I’m building a library”, linked ot which I have recently developed what could be a major addiction, buying editions from the Folio Society, which publishes exquisite editions of classic books. Of course, they only sell new editions themselves, but in the last week, I’ve got into finding Ebay auctions for used copies (a more affordable “buy the damn book”/”building a library” habit!) and loving that!
Now, to the post title, “how collective silence can change time”. I chose to go to the Silent Book Club both out of curiosity and a sense that I might be able to read longer and with more focus when in such a setting.
The book I chose to take to the Silent Book Club was “The Order of Time” by Carlo Rovelli. I first bought one of his books as he writes so exquisitely beautifully, yet I only read. a few pages each time I pick up one of his books. Part of this is because his writing is so wonderful I like to sit with the words and phrases, but part of it is also, well, that he is talking about some deep science (theoretical physics) and that takes some focus, and often re-reading for me to take it in.
At the silent book club, I sat for around forty minutes reading. I found that, through the collective energy of ten people reading silently together, I maintained my focus and deep concentration on both Rovelli’s words and the concepts he was explaining, allowing me to gently flow through tens of pages of the book. What was he talking about? Time, and, in particular, how time is flexible, malleable, not uniform in how we experience it. Those forty minutes of collective silence passed gently and easily, and both lasted for hours and also for moments. As Keanu Reeves would say “it’s quantum baby“.
I loved the Silent Book Club experience and will be back. You can also visit the site and set up your own chapter. Another idea is a Reading Weekend, and an idea for a format for that from Rob Poynton, who used to run these. Set one of these up and I will be the first to sign up!