WSJ via MSN: “…Though traditional book clubs have been a fixture of American social life for decades, some bibliophiles think they have lost the plot. These bookworms don’t want to read books that don’t interest them. Even worse is recommending a book the rest of the group hates. They dread the scheduled dinners where they feel bound to dish up smart-sounding hot takes, along with a side or dessert. So they are showing some spine and rewriting the book club, without the assignments or attitude. More people of all ages are gathering to read silently or discuss books they’re reading on their own. “I like to read for pure enjoyment without a deadline,” said Megan Sampson, a 34-year-old executive assistant who organizes the Silent Book Club meetups in Easton that Yanikoski joined…Kathy Beaird is on the same page. She runs a monthly group that is called “What’s On Your Nightstand?” and touted as a “Not-a-Book-Club Book Club” at the public library in Woodstock, Vt. Participants discuss books they have read, from Abraham Verghese’s “The Covenant of Water,” a story of a fisherman turned “restorative ocean farmer,” to Frankenstein. These days people want to focus on books they are interested in, said the 75-year-old librarian. “People are just more aware of their time,” she said. She was planning to “take a sabbatical” from a book club she was once in when it dissolved on its own. The “not-a-book-club” book club speaks volumes to Leslie Leslie, who joined after moving to Woodstock in the pandemic. She recommends books to friends for their traditional book clubs but won’t join one herself. “I will not read a book that other people say you have to read,” said the 76-year-old artist and onetime English major. “I did that in college, and I never have to do it again.” Billed on its website as an “introvert happy hour,” and as a contrast to traditional book clubs where “there’s the scramble to finish the assigned book,” the Silent Book Club has grown about 75% this year to 525 chapters globally. Co-founders Guinevere de la Mare and Laura Gluhanich started the club when they were overbooked professionals in San Francisco looking for time to read without the hosting hassle. (Most of their “previous attempts at book clubs had fizzled out.”)…”