Stranger editor in chief Christopher Frizzelle started the Silent Reading Party, and now it's also happening in Brooklyn. The New Yorker has a full report. (Brooklyn even copied getting a cellist!)

All of the attendees I talked to—from the woman intent on W. G. Sebald’s “Austerlitz,” in the corner, to another reading Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In,” who was there with her mother—said that they became interested in these parties because they seemed to offer a chance for undistracted reading. This was superior to their apartments (too noisy), libraries (too institutional), and parks (too unpredictable). But the thing they seemed to value most about the event was what one man, reading Russell Hoban’s “Riddley Walker,” called “a mild peer pressure” that made them uncomfortable about looking at their phones.

More cities should do it! It is really great. The next Seattle Silent Reading Party is a week from tomorrow at the lovely Sorrento. With drinks!