Paul is the secret sauce of the Silent Reading Party. He’s the reason for that 19th-century feeling. We’re all sitting by the fire listening to a gifted artist play piano.
He arranges his sets to include as much range as he can.
“I hop around from genre to genre really freely,” he told Charles Gibson of Good Morning America on Friday.
“It gives everybody who’s reading a little something for their story.”
He has now released an album called Silent Reading Party, which is streamable wherever you listen to music.
Need 53 minutes of music you can read to? Here you go:
Paul has been the reading party musician for a decade.
If you’re a regular: any Paul favorites missing? What’s your favorite thing he plays?
Personally, I’m sad to see his take on Britney Spears’s “Toxic” is not here.
Paul’s album Silent Reading Party is also available on Apple Music or your streaming device of choice.
Watch the full story on Good Morning America
Thanks to ABC producers for telling the full story, and zooming out for a bird’s eye view on the trend we’ve started.
I learned about some parties in other places I didn’t even know about!
And Charles Gibson talks to a bunch of attendees of the May 8, 2024 party on air:
As Poet’s & Writer’s magazine wrote in 2017, I created the first reading party in 2009.
It was inspired by an after-work hangout with two colleagues at The Stranger years ago.
The first party open to the public was to celebrate Hotel Sorrento’s 100th anniversary in 2009. There was a line out the door, and 10 years later — at this party below in 2019 — there was still a line out the door.
During the coronavirus pandemic, we launched the virtual party, which the New York Times attended.
After in-person parties could resume, we switched to a reservation system so that we could throw the party without turning away so many people each time.
Future dates and reservations are available at SilentReadingParty.com.
We still offer the virtual parties, but they’re not quite the same as the in-person parties.
FrizzLit produces the Silent Reading Party, and reservations are released on Substack two weeks before they are available to the general public.
Thank you for supporting the party with your subscription!
By the way, did you know Charlie Gibson and his daughter have a podcast about new books? Check out the Book Case.
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