John Stokdijk has been a fan of nonfiction ever since he was a teenager living in Calgary, Alberta.
Being the kind of person who tends to be involved with and contribute to the community that he lives in, Stokdijk the Ajijic Book Club a few years after he and his wife, Patricia, retired to Lakeside in 2012. “At last I could make a contribution to the community and do something that no one has done before in Ajijic,” he says.
The idea to start a nonfiction book club popped into Stokdijk’s head in early 2016. He proceeded to develop a website, distribute flyers, post notices on bulletin boards and advertise in the Guadalajara Reporter. The response was encouraging enough to call an initial meeting, which attracted 15 attendees. Clearly, his idea resonated with the community. One and a half years after that initial meeting, the club is thriving, with a special public event slated for October 10.
To get the group up and running, Stokdijk did it all – from selecting the books, leading the discussions and arranging the meeting place to sending out announcements and creating a membership list.
“I want this to be a member driven book club,” he says. “Any member can volunteer to lead a meeting and leaders have a lot of latitude as to how they want to lead the meeting. A leader is responsible for sending out a choice of three books, then members vote for one. Over time, we’ve moved the format to member selected books without restriction.”
Along with discussing books, the group has a social element as well, so members meet at restaurants where they have the option to order food and beverages. Some even opt to stay after the meeting in order to dine together.
Included in the book club are some locally published authors. Says Stokdijk: “Lakeside has plenty of fiction writers but, amazingly enough, we have seven books by seven local writers in the nonfiction category, each of whom still live in the area.”
Last September, the group chose to discuss “One Step Ahead,” by member Jack Prins. In the book, Prins leads the reader through his dramatic journey as a young Jewish boy living in Holland during World War II.
“Being from Holland, the story really resonated with me,” says Stokdijk. “My father was a young man in Holland in World War II, and seeing the war through the eyes of a child made me appreciate the circumstances my father lived through.”
Other locally featured authors have included David Bryan, Elizabeth ColterJohn, Toni Rahman and Connie Davis, who recently won a gold medal in the 2017 Global Ebook Awards for her book, “Searching for Sitala Mata.”
A desire to know, coupled with a love of learning, is what sparked Stokdijk’s early interest in nonfiction. “Generally, I’m interested in knowing a little bit about a lot of things versus knowing a lot about a few things. How I was raised was a big factor. As a teenager growing up in the 1960s, our family was quite poor and we had no television, so reading was our main source of entertainment.”
On reflection, he’s grateful for not having grown up with a TV. Instead, he’d peruse the shelves of bookstores and libraries. “I started with science fiction and then moved to nonfiction with The Helen Jorgensen Story, a fascinating book about a famous 1960s transgender case. Although it seems like an odd subject to capture a teenager’s interest, it certainly caught mine.”
Stokdijk and his wife discovered Ajijic from the internet. “I worked as an accountant and wanted to take an early retirement but we didn’t want to retire in Canada because of the winters and lack of affordability. We came to Ajijic in 2006 for a month-long vacation and what followed were two more vacations, before we ended up retiring there.”
At the club’s upcoming event, Nomi Prins – economist, world traveler and daughter of writer Jack Prins – will discuss her book, “All the President’s Bankers.” The book covers the history of the relationship between U.S. presidents and senior bankers, from Teddy Roosevelt through Barack Obama. To help with the event, the Ajijic Book Club is partnering with the local chapter of Democrats Abroad.
Stokdijk visualizes the book club evolving as an organizational culture, while members are intuitively gaining insight into what books resonate with the group as a whole. “It’s all happening organically. Our biggest challenge is that there are simply too many great books to fit into our agenda. Interestingly, no one has yet picked a book that I haven’t wanted to read.”
A free public event: “All The Presidents’ Bankers/Nomi Prins,” Tuesday, October 10, 4 p.m. at La Casa de Musico, La Paz 59, San Antonio Tlayacapan. For more information: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..