One more weird meetup before regular content resumes - next weekend is EAGx Toronto and I'll be busy prepping for that, so I'm offloading this meetup to another group that I've always wanted to check out!

Meet at 6:00pm at Midnight Run Cafe for August's Silent Book Club, a monthly silent reading event that sadly always happens on Thursdays. No tickets are required, but it might be polite to grab one anyways (they're free) to help the organizers gauge attendance.

SBC Agenda

6:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
People arrive, order drinks/food, share what they're reading

6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Silent Reading Hour

7:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Optional socializing

I'm down to hang out for another hour or so after the official end of the event. We can stay at Midnight Run if it doesn't get too loud, or find a nearby patio or something and enjoy the evening air.

Optional Reading

My Lifetime Reading Plan - Ted Gioia, 2013

One day, I sat down and made a list of the 50 most important books that I still hadn’t read. During the subsequent months, I read every book on that list.

When I finished all those titles, I decided that I now knew novels, poetry, social studies, and philosophy at a deep level, but I still lacked sufficient knowledge of history. So I made another list of history books, going back to Herodotus and the Egyptians and Sumerians, and continuing all the way to the modern times. Once again, I read every book on the list.

By the time I reached the age of forty, I was well read. I might even say I was wickedly well read. I could match up with professors at Harvard or Oxford. And here’s the oddest part of the story—I could even talk to them about their specialties, but for me this was all disinterested and outside the scope of my vocation.

They were often shocked. I had professors ask me with a strange, unsettled look in their eye: How does a jazz musician know so much about Aristotle? Or: How were you able to quote that passage from Ovid in the original Latin? Or: How in the world did you know about that book?

It was hard to explain that this was just my extravagant hobby.

This was a rat-adj piece that went slightly viral last year. I came across it again recently and it's been rattling around my skull since. 

Discussion Questions for discord and/or post-meetup

• Does your ideal self have a lifetime reading plan? What does it look like? What books would be on it?
• Gioia mentions focusing on specific areas of knowledge, such as novels, poetry, social studies, philosophy, and history. Do you think there are any other essential areas or genres that should be included in a comprehensive reading plan? 
• How well-read do you think you are? Do you want to be?
• How has your reading evolved over time? Are there any books or authors that have significantly influenced your perspective or changed the course of your intellectual journey?
• Are there any books that you feel everyone should read, regardless of their background or interests? What qualities make a book universally valuable or relevant?
• How do you discover new books and authors to read?
• What book do you plan on bringing to the silent book club?