Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette The interior of Keweenaw Brewing Company in Houghton, where the Silent Book Club will meet to read and discuss the literature they bring with them

On Sept. 23, the Portage Lake District Library will be hosting its Silent Book Club at the Keweenaw Brewing Company to read and share thoughts on an expansive variety of literature.

The club has been meeting up over the past year and a half on the second and fourth Monday of each month from 6 to 7 p.m. to bond over a similar hobby.

Participants read their own books they have selected for 45 minutes and then go across all the readers one by one for each member to share their perspectives on what they have read and whether or not they recommend the book. This includes analysis of the read material and what their impressions are of the authors. The material read by the club members includes book series, articles, magazines, novels, short stories, graphic novels and more. Between events, members will try to read material that was recommended by another at the gathering and compare and contrast each others’ impressions.

During the gathering, members enjoy alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverages and converse with one another on initial reactions to their literature of choice. The library coordinator Asako Nakamura believes this event makes it easier for those with similar interests to meet new people and befriend one another.

“Normally, we don’t get to talk much about books,” she said. “Once we share [our thoughts], we realize more depth of the books than on our own.”

Nakamura also believes that the venue contributes to the ability to make it easier to communicate and that the library should provide the freedom to read not only within but outside its walls.

“It’s friendly and easy,” she said. “It’s not a classroom and no one’s a teacher and some are drinking so it’s casual. There are many people [of] a different age, demography [and] background but we can somehow connect, very easily closen our relationships.”

This has been noticed by one of the bartenders, Sarah Rowe. Rowe has seen the participants ranging from college age students to older adults all exhibiting a passion about getting together to bond over a hobby. She thinks that it is interesting that they can encourage one another to read a different genre or medium from each others’ recommendations.

“I guess it brings them into the community a little bit more as opposed to a library,” Rowe said. “This has a little bit more exposure for the club which probably draws more people in.”