First 90-days of Last Call Library

The first 90-days of Last Call Library have been a ride.

What started as an initial kickoff event for a bunch of beer-drinkers with a non-fiction problem has resulted in over 60 men forming five Last Call chapters, selecting nine books, visiting nine bars, and reading over 3,000 pages.

The books we read pulled us all over the proverbial map. The Jakarta Method and How to Hide an Empire took us to Indonesia, Guam, and the greater U.S. territories, tracing the edges of U.S. power and influence.

Kevin's 🐶 suggested we read about coups

Some guys went back to experience the tumultuous 1960's through the effortlessly thought-provoking prose of Joan Didion in The White Album.

Others had the chance to ride shotgun on a COVID-era Appalachian mail route with Stephen Starring Grant's, Mailman.

Offseason calls for Thursday Night book club

And most recently, with Football, Chuck Klosterman challenged the guys to think of U.S. football less as a weekend TV-viewing affair and more as one of the few phenomenons keeping the U.S. mono-culture intact. Each month, our guys moved their conversations to new bars across New York City. Hops Hill on Atlantic featured 16 taps and a fridge lined with corky-titled beer cans. Other bars like Sophie’s and 7B Horseshoe bar went from sitting idle on a mental bucket list to becoming bars tied to a book, a group of dudes, and thoughtful insights.

Age of Diagnosis @ Hops Hill Atlantic

What's been most surprising are the conversations. Not the books or bars, but the men who, in another setting, might never engage with one another. With Last Call Library, they focus on one expert source then come together to unpack the book (i.e. the state of health diagnoses, cultural flashpoints, U.S. foreign policy) without a motive or agenda. A lawyer, a weightlifter, a musician, a businessman, an environmentalist, a stand-up comic, all reading the same material and sharing their thoughts in a genuine attempt to inform, not insult. Beyond the conversations, Last Call Library revealed how closely our lives already run alongside one another. Learning that the guy in your book club plays in a band on your running playlist is the kind of coincidence that’s hard to put into words. Or realizing the guy across the table once worked with your childhood friend 3,000 miles away.

Mailman @ Sound & Fury Brewing

And then there's what happens outside our monthly outings. One guy helps another move in to a new apartment. Somone invites his entire Last Call chapter to a jam-packed houseparty. Two neighbors finally make good on those "hard-to-schedule" beers.

32 book goal at a "two book every 90-day" pace

One quarter down. What's next? With a fifth chapter in the mix, we're now on pace for 36 books and roughly 13,000 pages read by the end of the year (potentially surpassing our original goal).

After April and May, we'll take a break in June. The books go on pause, but New York City does not. The play is to mix the chapters, keep the momentum going, and adventure through the city without a reading deadline hanging over our heads. We'll line up a few optional hangs for folks to choose from. A dumpling crawl that spills into Chinatown Fair Arcade? A Prospect Park loop run followed by a beer at Double Windsor? Maybe a Manhattan neighborhood history walk with a stop somewhere random? If you're already part of Last Call, buckle up, this is where we take it up a notch.