A weekly ritual in Bengaluru to rekindle forgotten love of quiet book reading

Bengaluru: Bengaluru Bookies, a silent book-reading community, hosted its first-ever weekly silent reading session at the Karnataka State Central Library in the Seshadri Iyer Memorial Hall on Sunday. 

The bookies, trying to start a book reading movement, usually hold their weekly events in public parks in Koramangala. 

Sowmya Ramesh and Kavya Digge, the hosts for Bengaluru Bookies, told DH: "We started last November and have been hosting the session every Sunday without a miss. We have recently started looking for opportunities to collaborate to provide more exposure to our readers." 

About 100 people from all walks of life gathered at Cubbon Park on Sunday, including children as young as five and adults as old as 70. 

“We capped the participants to 100 this time to not disturb the general public at Cubbon Park," said Soumya. 

While some readers brought their own books to read, others used the books available at the library. "We recommend books when readers ask us, but we do not provide books to avoid influencing the readers," she added. 

Moving forward, the bookies hope to conduct book drives to collect books from readers and provide them mainly to children who do not have access to books. 

Sharing her experience with Bengaluru bookies, Madhura, a reader, said, "I have been part of this community for eight months now. The timing of the event is perfect because it gives us peaceful hours of reading without any distractions." 

Another participant, Abhinandan, said: "Personally, this community has helped me to get back to my forgotten love after a long long break." 

Bengaluru Bookies is affiliated to Mumbai Bookies.