Reading was once a pastime best enjoyed alone before going to sleep, for entertainment on the subway or to relax on a sun lounger over the summer holidays. Not anymore.
On August 30, more than 100 people gathered to read at Tender, a community space in a hipster-filled neighborhood in Melbourne, Australia.
For a few hours, the attendees quietly read books they’d brought from home, with a carefully curated playlist in the background. Toward the end of the event, its organizer, Grant Krupp, gently encouraged people to meet others — but attendees could keep reading if they preferred.
Krupp has held about a dozen of the so-called Book Doofs in Melbourne, and three in Perth, since the first event in October 2025, he says. In Australia, “bush doofs” are dance parties held in remote locations, with the name derived from the “doof doof” sound of the bass drum in electronic music.
Book clubs have long turned reading into a social activity. But now, books are moving into the social scene in a way they haven’t before. Reading parties like Book Doofs are happening across the world. But they’re just one example of how people are putting books at the center of their social lives, through reading retreats, literary dinners and walk-and-talks with authors.
