Feeling isolated? Join a quarantine book club

Dozens of virtual book clubs are springing up across the internet for you to join. Just try searching Facebook groups for "coronavirus book club" or "social distancing book club" and you'll see what we mean. Dozens of virtual book clubs are springing up across the internet for you to join. Just try searching Facebook groups for "coronavirus book club" or "social distancing book club" and you'll see what we mean. Photo: Francesco Carta Fotografo/Getty Images Photo: Francesco Carta Fotografo/Getty Images Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close Feeling isolated? Join a quarantine book club 1 / 19 Back to Gallery

With eight Bay Area counties under orders to shelter-in-place to slow the spread of coronavirus, millions are now cooped up at home. Your gym? Closed. Your brunch plans? Canceled. Even your book club can't meet this month. Or can it?

Some book lovers craving social interaction are getting creative under these unprecedented circumstances. San Francisco design studio Mule Design has launched Quarantine Book Club, offering live-streamed Q&As with authors on Zoom for isolated readers.

"This week everybody was working from home, so I started setting Zoom calls up with them, like hey, let's just hang out for an hour," said Mule Design co-founder Mike Monteiro. "That was the real genesis of the thing."

Monteiro, who is also an author, tested out the idea for Quarantine Book Club by hosting a Zoom Q&A session for his own book. It went well — over 100 people signed up — so in less than 24 hours, they launched the real thing. Authors started filling up his inbox with requests to host their own Q&As.

Now, authors with upcoming discussions include Heather B. Armstrong (“The Valedictorian of Being Dead”, David Dylan Thomas (“Design for Cognitive Bias”), Myriam Gurba (“Mean”), Dan Sinker (“Impeachment.fyi”), Nathan Shedroff & Chris Noessel (“Make It So”) and Maria Ingrande Mora (“Fragile Remedy”).

Here's how it works: sign up for the virtual book club of your choosing using Eventbrite and pay $5 (a measure "to keep trolls out" and also generate a little revenue for Mule Design and the authors, explained Monteiro). Then, you'll get an email with a Zoom access code and be transported to a live chat room with your favorite author.

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It's a win-win: authors with canceled book tours get a chance to promote their books, and bored readers stuck at a home get a way to occupy their time. And all quarantining aside, it's a dream come true for introverts, said Monteiro.

"You've got people sitting in the place where they're most comfortable and they can talk to a writer that they admire," he explained. "If they feel up to it they can ask a question, or they can just watch the show."

Many existing book clubs are also taking things virtual. Silent Book Club — an already unconventional book club that started in San Francisco but now has chapters around the world — is also kicking off live-streamed meetings.

Usually, a Silent Book Club meeting entails meeting a bunch of people at a bar, reading whatever book you want for an hour, and then chatting afterward about what you're reading. The Zoom version is pretty much exactly the same, just virtual.

"Now we are in the process of gathering up all the information for the different virtual meetups being hosted by different cities, and we're publishing them all on our website," said co-founder Guinevere de la Mare. "We're hoping this will sort of help people feel like there's a place they can go where they can connect with other people in what is otherwise a really isolating moment."

While it's not entirely the same as meeting up in person, there is one upside to taking book club meetings virtual. De la Mare, who lives in San Francisco, has finally been able to attend meetings at different chapters across the globe, even in Italy.

"For me, personally, I really enjoy being able to interact with these different locations I can't get to in person," she said.

On Sunday, de la Mare attended an Italian chapter's meeting, which was at 8 a.m. her time — which turned out to be an unexpectedly great time to read.

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"What was nice was that I was forced to sit there and read my book instead of waking up and reading news headlines," she explained.

Even if Quarantine Book Club and Silent Book Club don't sound like your speed, dozens and dozens of these virtual book clubs are springing up across the internet for you to join. Just try searching Facebook groups for "coronavirus book club" or "social distancing book club" and you'll see what we mean.

"There’s room for a million online book clubs. Everybody should make one," said Monteiro. "I think people need human contact, even if it’s just 20 minutes a day. Even if it’s behind a screen."

So take your pre-existing book club online, or start a new one with your friends (even friends who live across the country! Geography no longer matters). It can be a video call or just a group chat. Read apocalyptic books about pandemics to try to learn from fiction, or read lighthearted stuff to get your mind off the real world.

As far as obtaining said books under shelter in place: Libraries may be closed, but you can still check out e-books on your Kindle. Or, support local independent bookstores by ordering a stack of new reads online.

The San Francisco chapter of Silent Book Club's next meeting, which will be held on Zoom, will take place on Mar. 29 at 4 p.m.

Madeline Wells is an SFGATE associate digital reporter. Email: madeline.wells@sfgate.com | Twitter: @madwells22