Meet doe times | founder of Silent Book Club Decatur chapter

We had the good fortune of connecting with doe times and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi doe, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I always like to start with this question about a person’s background because one’s positionality impacts all that they do.
I’m from Ewa Beach, Hawai’i, which is a town located on the island of O’ahu. Growing up, my mother read to my sister and I every night, and we kept many books in the house. The latter, especially, is a privilege considering that a 2024 study by the US Department of Education found that up to 61% of low-income families do not have any books for their kids at home. Even amongst those not considered low-income, 45% of US children live in neighborhoods that lack public libraries and bookstores, or in homes where books are an “unfamiliar luxury.” My identity as a reader today is inextricable from the fact that my mother and stepfather’s combined incomes made our family somewhat securely middle-class, giving me greater access to books.
My mother also loved to read, so I had her as a model for reading, and she’s the one who taught me how to read even before I attended preschool. She created a home environment that could foster a love of and confidence in reading. Often, my mother would ask me to read aloud or tell her about the plots of novels I read. My feelings of enjoyment that come from sharing about books and being in a book-ish community can be traced back to these childhood moments.

Alright, how and why you started the club?
I started Silent Book Club Decatur in April 2022. For months, I’d been thinking about starting a chapter, but other priorities took precedence. During this period though, I underwent a change in my work that allowed me more time to finally start a chapter. The change also affirmed my desire to be intentional about being in like-minded community. It was, like, the sign or the push I needed to start.
Thankfully, because Decatur is already such a flourishing community of readers, it was easy to get started. I remember being nervous showing up early for the first meeting. There’s the thought of, ‘Oh no, what if nobody else shows up?’ But I shrugged and figured that, even if not a single person came, at least I’d have two hours of reading time at a really cute bar. In the end, there were six of us that first day, and at least a dozen folks have come out to each meeting ever since.
Looking back over the past two years, I think what I’m most proud and excited about is the opportunity our members have to not only enjoy reading together but also expand our worlds. Reading is such an expansive activity. It expands one’s knowledge of themselves, other people and cultures, completely different social realities–of everything, really. And that expansion can happen through something as simple and kind as a book recommendation.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Decatur, Georgia is home to over a dozen independent bookstores, each of them so well-stocked and unique. If a fellow reader were visiting, I’d take them to visit each one. There’s actually an annual event that does exactly this called the Atlanta Indie Bookshop Crawl — highly recommend!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Silent Book Club Decatur is one of over 400 chapters around the world. Our club wouldn’t be possible if not for Guinevere de la Mare and Laura Gluhanich, two friends who started the first chapter of Silent Book Club at a San Francisco bar in 2012.

A huge shoutout goes out to them!

I’d also like to give a shoutout to the venues around Decatur who consistently host our club: Inner Voice Brewing, Taichi Bubble Tea, Dancing Goats Coffee, Oakview Coffee and Mo’s Pizza. We literally could not meet without you!

Website: https://silentbook.club/blogs/events/decatur-georgia

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silentbookclubdecatur/