A low-pressure reading party helped me unplug after work

After work I felt mentally exhausted and burned out: endless emails, a phone that buzzed long after 5 p.m., and evenings spent doomscrolling on my couch. I tried going to the gym and making plans for happy hour, but I usually canceled or didn’t want my social life to revolve around alcohol.

When I checked my screen-time settings I saw I was spending an average of four hours a day on my phone, and a friend suggested I try a reading party, or Silent Book Club. I went to a reading party at a café with a copy of The Handmaid's Tale and found about a dozen people spread out with books and coffees, and no phones in sight.

I was distracted at first, but after about 20 minutes I settled in. We read, uninterrupted, for one and a half hours, then the organizer called everyone to introduce themselves and share what they were reading. Conversations flowed easily with people who already carved out time to read; I chatted with the person next to me about Bukowski and appreciated not feeling pressured to swap Instagram handles or phone numbers.

reading party, book club, unplug, screen time, burnout, doomscrolling, handmaid's, bukowski, cafe, coffee