My 25 Years Before the Mast

In late September 2000, I attended my first meeting of what was then the Potomac Gay Men's Book Group. I remember we met in a restaurant on Connecticut Avenue NW, a couple of blocks up from Lambda Rising, and I felt welcome, but the rest is lost in the mists of time.

I've looked through the "Books We Have Read" section of our blog (at the bottom) to refresh my memory on what we discussed that night, but there's no entry for the third week of that month, alas. (If any of you old-timers happen to remember, let me know.) So my guess is that the group returned to an anthology already in progress, for which our blog only gives the date when we start it.

I was still working full-time in those days, so I didn't make it to all that many BookMen meetings initially. But I always enjoyed the discussions and the camaraderie, and in May 2009 I took over as facilitator from Tim Walton (and as blogmaster, eventually). It's been a great quarter-century, and I hope to be around for many more BookMen gatherings!