On Tuesday nights at Fort Worth boutique Hotel Dryce, the bar is packed, yet quiet. Guests are curled up on couches, camped out at the counter, or seated on the patio — all with their nose in a book.
It’s Silent Book Club night.
Silent Book Club is an informal network founded in 2012 in San Francisco by a pair of book lovers that has grown to more than 500 chapters across the globe. Members gather in a public space such as a bar or coffee shop, and read silently for an hour. Afterwards, they can stick around and chat, or just go home. Their website lists at least 18 in the DFW area, from Denton to Euless to Arlington to Garland.
This Fort Worth chapter was founded in 2022 by Victor Van Scoit, a part-time bartender at Hotel Dryce who wanted to plan more events for the bar.
He’d become familiar with the concept of silent book clubs while living in San Francisco, and liked how unusual it was: calm and genuine, where “people could meet as people,” unlike the transactional feel of networking events, he says.
It was slow at first, with only a handful of people trickling in each week. Now his Tuesday night clubs host up to 40 to 50 people. It became so popular that they ran out of space, so in 2023, he added a second night on Thursdays. While not as popular as Tuesdays, Thursdays gets a good flow of people wanting to spread out more and enjoy the quiet, he says.
Most Silent Book Clubs follow a format: They run about two hours, beginning with a short preamble about the club, followed by an hour of silent reading.
This Fort Worth chapter is less formal — more like a silent “book night.”
Visitors start meandering in around 4 pm and can stay until the bar closes at 10 pm. Van Scoit serves as host: standing behind the bar, welcoming regulars, explaining the concept to newcomers, and fixing drinks. He doesn’t do a speech at the beginning — people can free-read or chat with neighbors however they like.
Members of Silent Book Club in Fort Worth at Hotel Dryce.Silent Book Club
“Sometimes they end up talking more than they read,” he says. At the top of every hour, though, he flips an hourglass for a 30-minute “intentional reading sprint.”
Another distinction of Van Scoit’s club is that, while other chapters meet once a month and sometimes require RSVPs, his meets every week and there’s no sign-up sheet. He wanted a “no FOMO” environment, where folks didn’t feel stressed if they missed a meeting. Silent Book Club, he says, is “a shame-free way to show up for yourself.”
Members read whatever they like. Many will bounce between genres — one week someone will be reading A Court of Thorns and Roses, and the next they’ll have a tome on philosophy or a comic book.
No matter what they’re reading, it’s bound to be a conversation starter. One member, for example, is a murder-mystery enthusiast who can’t hide her excitement when a clue’s revealed.
“It’s a physical, literal outburst and it’s just joyful,” Van Scoit says. “People can’t help but ask her, ‘I have to know what book are you reading?'”
Van Scoit’s club is not the only Silent Book Club in Fort Worth. There are at least two other chapters: The Leaves Book and Tea Shop chapter meets at 1251 W. Magnolia Ave. on the first Sunday of the month from 4-5:30 pm, and Fairmount Community Library hosts a monthly event at 1310 W. Allen Ave.
Silent Book Club calls it an “Introvert Happy Hour,” but Van Scoit doesn’t see it as introverts vs. extroverts. While people can read in silence and not talk to anyone if they want, he feels it’s more like a coming together of book lovers who feel safe and comfortable to share.
And in the two years since founding his club, he’s witnessed friendships form, people find housing and jobs, and the general community grow through club nights.
“When you’re surrounded by your tribe,” he says, “it just makes it that much easier just to have an in or a way to break ice.”
