My Head In the Clouds

“The goal is not to be the smartest person in the room. It’s to make the room smarter.”

I wish I could claim those wise words but they belong to Adam Grant, the bestselling author. Still, I’m happily borrowing them, because they capture exactly how I felt walking into the Silent Book Club hosted by “Life’s Like That” earlier this month.

The venue? A bright, airy cafe filled with natural light, good coffee and even better company. I was running late (classic me), so the first thing that caught my eye wasn’t the books but the energy of the host, Priya Mathur, holding the space together. Then came the soft rustle of pages, a soundtrack so soothing, it felt as if the cafe was holding its breath.

It instantly transported me back to my school library where I’d spend hours lost in books, often ignoring my friends in favour of stories. Except this time, adulthood didn’t let me ignore either coffee or conversation. And maybe that’s what made this gathering feel so special: nostalgia, blended with community, caffeine and connection.

Now, I’m no stranger to books but I’ll admit I’ve been on a long self-inflicted sabbatical. Life, Netflix, the lure of podcasts & the endless scroll of content have all chipped away at my once effortless habit of reading. Slowing down with a book feels almost impossible.

But something shifted that day. Sitting in a room where silence wasn’t awkward but intentional, surrounded by others equally lost in their pages, I felt my old rhythm return. And when the silence gave way to conversation, it wasn’t small talk, it was connection sparked by stories.

That’s the real beauty of a book club: fictional characters and borrowed words have a way of helping us make sense of our very real lives. They remind us of the versions of ourselves we’ve outgrown, the ones we’re still becoming and the ones we sometimes need to escape.

And maybe that’s the soul of it all; walking away not just with a book read, but with the heart a little lighter, perspective a little sharper and a room made just a bit smarter. 😊