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Please donate $2 to $5 for our meetup dues that will charge on July 12, 2025. Contribute to Houston Reading Parties (GoFundMe). [We just used previously raised funds to pay dues on 1/12/25). Dues of $190 are due every six months!]

We do not all read the same book at our reading parties (held mostly at Houston-area coffee shops.) Instead, each person brings any book or text they are already reading or starting to read. It could be a textbook, fiction novel, non-fiction book, several articles, a technical piece, a training manual for work–ANYTHING you want to read.

We sit and read silently for 30 minutes. At the end of 30 minutes, we stop and share anything we feel like sharing about what we’re reading (interesting content, unique writing style, funny character exchange, controversial ideas, relevance to our lives, etc.). Or we talk about whatever! Once we’ve shared and socialized for about 20 minutes, we go back to reading. (We cap the talk break at approximately 20 minutes so we don’t lose sight of what we came to do: read while relaxing with other readers).

General group guidelines:

  1. Open to anybody age 18+. If you're a parent, bringing a mature, well-behaved kid age 12+ is okay. Said minor should read like everyone else.
  2. We'll mostly be at coffee shops and spacious work/study/read-friendly restaurants. Most places will have coffee, alcohol, food, desserts, etc.
  3. Please be respectful of everyone else. Any harassment or abuse of other members, whether in person or via text or Meetup messages, will not be tolerated. Please don’t contact any members privately either before an in-person event or after unless you’ve already spoken in person and they’ve indicated they welcome communication with you.
  4. Please stay true to the spirit of the group by reading at these parties. It doesn't matter if you read off your device rather than a hard-copy book, as long as you're reading rather than working on a school assignment or work task, scrolling on social media, shopping online, or whatever else. Of course, I cannot police people, nor do I want to, but know that I made this statement about treating a reading party like a reading party.
  5. The "silent reading" period isn't rigidly silent. It mostly is, but we'll naturally speak sometimes for whatever reason even before we get into sharing mode.
  6. We sometimes have dinner (and/or drinks) events.

Feel free to message me if you have additional questions or concerns! :)

– Jane

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