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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\u2019s motives and decisions. [Nikos Kokkalias]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In fact, it recently welcomed a crowd of 75 people for Athens\u2019 first silent book party, organized through Instagram. \u201cPeople generally read. Having a space that inspires you, that invites you to visit and to talk to others about books, is a great nudge,\u201d said the store\u2019s owner, Antonis Hatzirigas, 23, who has also run another cafe-bookstore in the suburb of Dafni for the past four years. \u201cSo, I thought: Since there\u2019s an audience, why not have a party for them?\u201d Reading, he added, doesn\u2019t have to be a \u201clonely pursuit.\u201d<\/p>\n
By 8.30 pm, the bookshop\u2019s rooms and courtyard were filled with people \u2013 many of them there out of curiosity for what a \u201csilent party\u201d is. After enjoying a cocktail, we immersed ourselves in our copy of the same book, \u201cThe Dilemma,\u201d by B.A. Paris. Though the book may not have been to everyone\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit like cinema, only instead of being in front of a big screen, you\u2019re behind the pages of a book. It\u2019s a great mix,\u201d \u00a0said Nefeli Serifi, 27. \u201cI 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\u2019ve never met before. It\u2019s smart and refreshing.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Older visitors were impressed by the fact that so many Gen Zers attended and \u201cthey didn\u2019t get up to leave after the first 10 minutes.\u201d There were a few absconders, of course, but they didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 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,\u201d said Maria, 24. \u201cI love books, though I confess that I don\u2019t read as much as I\u2019d like to. Reading always tends to come second.\u201d<\/p>\n
Myrto, 27, would not have chosen this particular book, but she did enjoy not knowing what she would be reading in advance. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really matter if it\u2019s to my taste or not. I came for the experience and I don\u2019t regret it for a moment. It was a different kind of outing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For Foteini, the idea was like an \u201copen invitation to a new book club, like the ones abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hatzirigas was so stoked by the turnout that he\u2019s already planning the next reading parties, each with a different title. \u201cI see it as an act of resistance to constant and interminable scrolling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n