Well, Well founder Dr Alicia Mollaun hopes Canberrans can foster their love of reading and talking about books through the Slow Pages Society. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
In a sitting area lined with crammed bookshelves, gooey chocolate brownies alongside a cup of coffee and Frank the cat giving us cursory glances, Dr Alicia Mollaun’s cosy space makes you want to pick up a good read and park on the couch.
But inevitably, the siren call of our phones can interrupt that impulse – or hinder it right from the start.
That’s why the economist and lifestyle/wellbeing coach has started the Slow Pages Society.
“I remember reading an article in The New York Times a couple of years ago and they had a thing called Reading Rhythms, where they would have all these young people come together on a rooftop bar somewhere really cute in New York and they’d have a band playing, and everyone would just read quietly and no one was allowed to look at their phones,” Alicia explained.
“They’d read, I think, for about an hour, have an interlude where people would chat – or not chat if they didn’t want to – and then go back to reading.
“I thought, ‘why don’t we have something like that in Canberra?’, and then I thought ‘maybe I’ll just try and start it myself’.”
Alicia has been curious about wellbeing ever since university and is clearly a bibliophile.
But since having her three boys, that interest has grown to consider the importance of wellbeing and the roadblocks that seem to prevent us from doing the very things we know will fill our cups.
“The research has shown that we’ve just become really susceptible to phones now. I think previously we could stay on task for a couple of minutes at a time, and now I think the research shows it’s like 37 seconds or 45 seconds before we want to switch tasks,” Alicia said.
“I think reading is one of those things [where] you can’t do something else at the same time … but a lot of people are like, ‘I wish I had more time to read or more focus’, so I thought, well, if you’re kind of peer pressured into reading and not looking at your phone by sitting somewhere fun, for two hours on a Sunday afternoon, without work … I thought ‘this would be great’.”
The Slow Pages Society started meeting in June. Readers gather on the last Sunday of each month at Capital Brewing Co in Fyshwick with their latest read (or reads) for an intentional afternoon away from screens and distraction.
There are no assigned books – everyone is welcome to just sit in each other’s company and read.
“One of the people that came last time said, ‘I’ve always wanted to read more, and so I saw this as an attempt to do it without distraction’,” Alicia said happily.
Conversation prompts are provided when the readers take a break in the middle of the session, and people are invited to meet each other and socialise. Or not.
Small notebooks are also provided, so if someone recommends an interesting read, it can be written down rather than succumbing to the temptation of making a note on your phone … and then checking notifications while you’re there.
The inaugural meeting of the Slow Pages Society at Capital Brewing Co. Photo: Well, Well.
Alicia feels it’s important for people to start talking about books again – and it doesn’t have to be high-brow discussions of the latest political piece or dense autobiography.
“[In the cover story of The Atlantic this month] about the end of reading, they had a stat that more Americans gambled last year than read a book, which is kind of terrifying,” she said.
“So I thought, ‘well, how do you start normalising again, particularly to kids, that reading’s just something you do.
“[At the last meet-up] someone was reading Sarah J Maas through to someone was reading a history of something to do with Nixon … so everyone had totally different, someone had a rom-com.
“I think it’s a way of sharing, not only a love of reading, but also what you’re reading … in book clubs you’re reading the same book and so you don’t really talk a lot about wider reading, so this is an opportunity to do that.”
There’s no age limit for joining the Slow Pages Society, but Alicia did encourage people to use it as a time to switch off.
This might mean leaving the kids at home.
“A lot of mothers I talk to are like, ‘Well, I couldn’t possibly do that, I’ve got to take my children to swimming or basketball or help them with their homework’, and they always put themselves last,” Alicia said.
“I think there’s that hurdle to get over for people, where they’re just not used to doing things for themselves, so I’d like people to take this kind of pre-hab idea rather than rehab, because I think we often wait until too late where we’re burnt out and we’re really tired and we’re really cranky and we start yelling at everyone, and then it’s too late.
“I think if people thought about it from a pre-hab perspective and maybe spent 15 minutes a day just for themselves … everyone would be a lot happier.”
But if you think your child would also enjoy some quiet reading time, bring them along.
Alicia’s 10-year-old son Evatt brought a friend along to the last session and described it as “pretty chill”.
“It got a bit boring around 30 minutes,” he admitted.
“And then we got back into it, which means we were more focused, and we were able to read more books together.”
The Slow Pages Society is an initiative of Dr Mollaun’s newsletter and Substack, Well, Well. The society runs on donation-based tickets with 30 per cent of proceeds going to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. Book your spot here.
