Booking Hill The House hosted 75 people who dove into the chosen book as soon as they were given the signal to start. After a quiet period of reading and reflection, they joined a discussion about the hero’s motives and decisions. [Nikos Kokkalias]
Harokopou Street in the southern Athens suburb of Kallithea is one of those areas that rarely seems to slow down. Flanked by tightly packed shops and businesses on either side, it attracts hundreds of shoppers every day, as evidenced by the double-parked cars across the length of the road. Turn off onto Riga Feraiou Street, though, and the setting changes as if by magic. Small apartment buildings built of stone in the early 20th century, with colorful ironwork on the windows and entrance doors, and small gardens, cast your mind to a bygone age.
And nestled among these listed residential units, in a two-story building from 1892, Booking Hill The House is a cafe-bookshop that has been building a growing following since its launch four months ago.
In fact, it recently welcomed a crowd of 75 people for Athens’ first silent book party, organized through Instagram. “People generally read. Having a space that inspires you, that invites you to visit and to talk to others about books, is a great nudge,” said the store’s owner, Antonis Hatzirigas, 23, who has also run another cafe-bookstore in the suburb of Dafni for the past four years. “So, I thought: Since there’s an audience, why not have a party for them?” Reading, he added, doesn’t have to be a “lonely pursuit.”
By 8.30 pm, the bookshop’s rooms and courtyard were filled with people – many of them there out of curiosity for what a “silent party” is. After enjoying a cocktail, we immersed ourselves in our copy of the same book, “The Dilemma,” by B.A. Paris. Though the book may not have been to everyone’s liking, the staging of the event soon had them all hooked. It was introduced by the actor Kleanthis Varasamoulis in the role of the protagonist, Adam, who asked the audience to ponder what we would do if faced with the same dilemma he faces in the book.
“It’s a bit like cinema, only instead of being in front of a big screen, you’re behind the pages of a book. It’s a great mix,” said Nefeli Serifi, 27. “I liked the idea of being able to discuss a book everyone is reading at the same time with your friends or the people next to you, whom you’ve never met before. It’s smart and refreshing.” Serifi is also a writer and came to the event with two friends, choosing to sit in a corner of one of the three rooms on the upper floor.
We sat at one of the main tables on the ground floor and noted how no one checked their phone in the first 40 minutes of the event, despite the dinging of incoming messages.
Older visitors were impressed by the fact that so many Gen Zers attended and “they didn’t get up to leave after the first 10 minutes.” There were a few absconders, of course, but they didn’t go until further on in the proceedings. As soon as the organizers gave the signal that quiet time was over, the readers started discussing the book, ordering cocktails and browsing the other titles on the shelves.
“It’s hard to come to this after work instead of just going home and chilling out with Netflix. I was motivated by curiosity and I also saw it as a challenge,” said Maria, 24. “I love books, though I confess that I don’t read as much as I’d like to. Reading always tends to come second.”
Myrto, 27, would not have chosen this particular book, but she did enjoy not knowing what she would be reading in advance. “It doesn’t really matter if it’s to my taste or not. I came for the experience and I don’t regret it for a moment. It was a different kind of outing,” she said.
For Foteini, the idea was like an “open invitation to a new book club, like the ones abroad.”
Hatzirigas was so stoked by the turnout that he’s already planning the next reading parties, each with a different title. “I see it as an act of resistance to constant and interminable scrolling,” he said.