Clubbing With Books

It’s Saturday night and the streets are starting to come alive with the hustle and bustle of nightlife. I’m feeling good. The excitement of tonight’s activities give my step a little extra bounce as I quickly weave in and out of people on the sidewalk, trying to make it back to the hostel with enough time to get ready. However, even on my walk I am already mentally preparing (pre-gaming if you will). I’ve got my headphones in and my mind is racing with thoughts of what tonight will bring. In my hand I carry a bag of items to add to the night’s festivities. Actually that’s a bit of an exaggeration….the only thing in the bag is a cheap bottle of wine. What can I say… I’m a simple person.

I pause at the entrance door of the hostel to look down at my phone screen. My what’s app notifications are blowing up. Everyone’s asking when we’re starting and where I’m at. I shove it back in my pocket and quickly race upstairs.

I head to my storage locker and start searching for the vital thing I need in order to go clubbing. What is it you might ask? Not makeup, a cute dress, high heels, jewelry, or money even. I rummage past all those frivolous items and finally find what I was searching for….

My computer.

With wine and laptop in hand, I make my way to the common area and plop myself down on one of the lumpy, colorful bean bag chairs. I quickly log into Sococo and as I wait to be connected I pour myself a glass. Finally, with the fascinating power of technology, 4 faces appear on my screen and a big smile spreads on my face.

Welcome to the book club.

Or as we are affectionately known (even if only to ourselves) ….

Vine and Verse

Do you get it? If not, it’s because we like wine and we read…. Pretty self explanitory huh?

So what exactly is this type of club? Well mine includes 5 very unique members: Jenny Michelle (my sister), JP, Claudia, Jen, and myself. (More on them later). We typically aim to read a book every month or so, with one meeting scheduled at the half way point and one at the end of the book. At the start of a rotation we each choose a book suggestion. Those suggestions are then put into a very handy phone app that randomly chooses which one will be this month’s pick. Each meeting is moderated by the person who suggested the book we are currently reading.

Thus far we have completed 4 books:

Siddhartha By: Hermann Hesse

American Psycho By: Bret Easton Ellis

Small Great things By: Jody Picoult

The Yellow Envelope By Kim Dinan

And we are currently scheduled to finish The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao By Junot Diaz within the next week.

A pretty diverse group of books huh?

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Now I know this isn’t the typical type of clubbing one would expect me to do on a Saturday night in a foreign country. However, it’s exactly the type of club experience I’m in the mood for right at the moment. Here’s three reasons why…

1) It helps bridge the gap of time and distance for me.

How do I travel the world AND still be present back home for the one’s I love? This is a question that I constantly ask myself because of how important each of those things are to me. I shouldn’t have to choose one or the other. When traveling for long periods of time with no defined end point it becomes very easy to lose sense of home. This might not be the same for everyone, but I can only write what I know. You can easily become disengaged from your normal life because of the time and lifestyle differences. Being part of something such as a book club gives one the ability to be held accountable to deadlines regardless of the extreme time differences in parts of the world. And to be honest, it just makes me feel like I’m home….even if just for two hours.

2) It keeps me grounded

Sometimes I get so used to being on the move every single day and seeing new, fascinating monuments or museums that I become submerged in a different life. Don’t get me wrong, that’s ideal and encouraged for traveling most of the time but that lifestyle lends itself to loneliness and disengagement sometimes. And no matter how many people you meet and make friends with. They will never be able to tell you how it really is better than those who have known you all your life, and that’s what the book club does for me.

3) It challenges me

This is the main reason I value this book club so much. The surface level challenge of doing an international book club is, of course, the logistics. I deal with time differences, wifi interruptions, power shortages, rescheduling issues, and many more. However, the deeper challenge that this book club presents me with constantly is the challenge to learn from the stories we read, from each other, and from myself.

This last reason also lends itself to why I've chosen to write this post in the “Other’s Story” category. To me, Vine and Verse represents that same values that traveling does. It encourages growth through it’s stories, it’s history, and it’s experiences. It asks you the tough questions, it fosters reflection, it inspires you to be better, and it forces you to continue learning.

I have a constant thirst to learn about people and cultures. What makes them who they are and what they represent. However, you don’t have to travel to do this. And although, I could be out on this Saturday night, at a real club, meeting strangers and partying it up (like I’m sure I’ll be doing tomorrow night), I chose to stay in and get to know the members of this book club just a little bit better.

I have known many of them for more than 7 years. However, it's only in the last 6 months that I have really began to understand who they truly are. The conversations we’ve had have covered love, loss, regret, racism, sexism, culture, humanity, death, psychology, fear, travel, marriage, heartbreak, happiness and so many other probing topics.

It’s not easy opening up and it’s even harder to actively listen. So thank you to the members of this club who continue to tell me their stories and who continue to listen to mine.

I am thankful for you and for what we’ve created with our little club and I will try my best to represent it’s essence and it’s culture with everyone I meet on my travels.