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January 21, 2009
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Though started only the beginning of this year, The Classics and Coffee of East Portland book club has already garnered 58 members.  A number that grew so fast it forced the organizer to switch the locations of their first scheduled meetup, as well as split the club into two groups.

Davinna (the organizer) says in her profile that she started the group “because I want to know more classic literature and to have stimulating exchanges of ideas about these timeless reads.”  The groups home page refers to using this club to “partak[e] in what Robert M. Hutchins called ‘the Great Conversation that began in the dawn of history and that continues to the present day’.”

The group chooses their book selection in a very democratic way via Meetup’s provided polling mechanism.  At the end of each meetup books are nominated for the next meeting, those are then placed online for everyone to vote on, at a certain point (long enough to give members time to read the book) the poll closes and the winning book is chosen.  They just had their initial meeting and the voting has begun for the March 1st meetup. These are the books on the chopping block:
(55%)
(51%)
(66%)
(56%)
(53%)
(60%)
(63%)
(62%)
(63%)

Oh and there is coffee. Who doesn’t love a cup of joe while discussing a great book?

Gabe Barber started Reading Local in January of 2009 as a vehicle for exploring Portland's literary scene. He's not an aspiring author, and you won't find his work on a bookshelf or in any prestigious lit rag. He is however, a full on book nerd, with a passion for independent literature.
5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. No.
    1

    Very interesting post, as are some of your other posts. I have bookmarked your great site for future visits.

    Reply
    Marcus
    3 years ago
    • No.
      1.1

      Marcus,
      Thank you for the kind words. I have just been having fun exploring all that is taking place around books in our great city, hopefully some of that comes through in the posts.

      readinglocal
      3 years ago
  2. No.
    2

    What's the update on this book club? Maybe it is here on the site somewhere, but I can be hopeless at navigating. Did they meet in March? What book? When is the next meeting and can new people join?

    So many questions!

    Reply
    RoseCityReader
    2 years ago
    • No.
      2.1

      Rose City Reader,
      This isn't a book group that I'm affiliated with, other than profiling them for this blog. But I checked their meetup page and it looks like they have had meetings through March, and have one scheduled for April 5th in Vancouver, and a concurrent one in "East Portland" on the 5th as well. The Vancouver one is in the early afternoon, and the Portland one is later in the evening.

      If you click the link up above, it will get you to the meetup page where you can join their membership ranks, if you're interested.

      readinglocal
      2 years ago
  3. No.
    3

    Thanks! This "meetup" thing is new to me, so i didn't understand how it worked. Now I do and will go take a look! I like the idea of these local book groups.

    Reply
    RoseCityReader
    2 years ago

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