KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 -- In a world where scrolling through social media has become the norm, more and more people in the Greater Klang Valley are turning to an unexpected escape: silent reading in public parks.

Every Saturday morning, close to 100 people gather at the Perdana Botanical Gardens here for two hours, choosing to immerse themselves in books rather than their devices.

They don't talk to each other, and if they have to, they whisper so as not to disrupt the serenity around them.

These readers are part of a growing movement called Kuala Lumpur Reads (KL Reads for short) that has sprouted offshoots from Cheras to Cyberjaya - one page at a time.

"It started off with only four or five people, but over the last few months, tens...