Viral Jersey Shore Book Club Appears on ‘TODAY’ Show

A Jersey Shore book club that went viral over the summer appeared on the TODAY show on Thursday.

The NBC morning show featured a segment on the Silent Book Club, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The Silent Book Club has thousands of chapters throughout the country. Members meet in a public location and read together. The concept especially caught fire after the pandemic when people actively sought out community to counter the period of isolation.

Watch the TODAY Show Segment on the Silent Book Club

Why Did the Silent Book Club of Monmouth County Go Viral?

Members of the Silent Book Club of Monmouth County were featured in the TODAY segment. The Jersey Shore's proximity to Manhattan may have helped with getting the invitation to help represent the parent organization, but there was another reason they got in: the Monmouth County chapter went insanely viral over the summer.

The chapter shared an Instagram video featuring members silently reading on the beach at summer gathering. The video ended up receiving over 3.9 million views and boosted their online following to over 27,000.

One of the facets of the Silent Book Club of Monmouth County is that they provide green and red color-coded bracelets to their members. These indicate what their social battery level is for the day. Green means someone is up for socializing after the silent reading hour is over, and red means they're not really feeling it that day.

Silent Book Club of Monmouth County co-organizer and Thunder Road Books staffer Kate Eckert explained the system to TODAY's Savannah Guthrie as part of the segment.

Members of the club also joined NBC's Jenna Bush for a silent reading gathering the day before the live appearance.