By Ed Hotchkiss
Ed is the author of the photobook, Station to Station: Exploring the New York City Subway, and is leading the TCC Book Club.
A few months ago, the TCC canvassed for interest in a virtual book club. The response exceeded expectations, and more than 30 members have joined a WhatsApp group to suggest books and vote on ones that will be discussed.
As we are all busy people traveling the world, the club agreed to discuss books under 400 pages that are reasonably available everywhere, and we decided on three categories of books: contemporary travelers, adventure travel, and historical travel. We will rotate among these categories each month.
In the first meeting in January, we discussed Bob Payne’s memoir of his travels to over 140 countries as a travel writer. Bob was at the meeting and gave fascinating details on his assignments, including how he persuaded Condé Nast Traveler to reimburse him for a Polynesian tattoo.
In February we discussed Osa Johnson’s I Married Adventure, which is about her and her husband’s lives as pioneering photographers and documentary filmmakers of remote areas of the world. An official from the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum in Chanute, Kansas, was there to further explain their extraordinary travels of two decades starting in 1917.
The first two meetings were held as breakout sessions after the monthly Virtual Exploration. Starting in March, a separate Zoom meeting will be before the Virtual Exploration call.
If you are interested in being included on the TCC Book Club’s WhatsApp list, contact Ed Hotchkiss or Charles Merkel.
