The Great Apes Weigh In

We received the following email from Jeff Potter, who was kind enough to share some background on his men-only book group, The Great Apes:

"Just found your website and wanted to let you know you're not alone . . . I've been part of an 8-11 member all guy (no chicks, no chick authors) book group, The Great Apes (picked the name after book #8 Tarzan!) in Ft Collins, CO since September 1994. We've read 130 plus books and celebrate each milestone with some special outing/event/tshirt/mug . . . .

"Highlight of my life outside of my family for sure. Your group therapy comment rings true with us all and the book group has probably saved each of us $1000 in shrink bills as we've had members become dads, granddads, married again, single again . . .our ages currently range from 63 or 64 down to 36. It's been "never a dull moment" for thirteen plus years.

"Favorite reads still remain TC Boyle's Water Music, Donleavy's The Ginger Man, Ambrose's Undaunted Courage, The Earth is Enough by Harry Middleton, all Cormac McCarthy but especially The Road (which we discussed at our annual January Breckenridge cabin outing), . . .next up Russo's Bridge of Sighs for Jan and Owen Wister's The Virginian for Feb. Even though we have a "no chick author" rule it's been broken twice: once when Dorothy Johnson's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence slipped through in a western short story collection, and Elizabeth Gilbert's The Last American Man picked on title alone . . .but the discussion was great.

"We're not organized enough to have a website, but our back and forth emails read about like your blog entries!"

Thanks, Jeff!