Roderick Tate was hanging out with friends in our nation's capital eight years ago taking in the sights, enjoying the camaraderie.

It felt good to be among friends and he wanted that feeling to last.

Courtesy of Roderick Tate (ENLARGE)

Roderick Tate, founder of Brothas Well Read, is launching an online book club. 'It's exciting,' he says.

Tate, a financial consultant from Midtown, enjoyed partying as much as the next guy. But, even at 30 years of age, he preferred something a bit more, well, enriching.

"If I start a book club, would you come?" he asked his friends.

Tate, a black man, had long admired the way African-American women networked and gathered together around common interests like book clubs. Maybe the men in his life could do the same. He loved reading for pleasure but he rarely got to share it with anyone. He hoped the "brothas" would change that.

Yes, they told him. They'd come.

Weeks later on the last Sunday of that September, 10 of them gathered at Tate's condo to discuss a novel.

The book was a hit and so began his book club, Brothas Well Read.

Tate still has a hard time believing men were willing to bond over a book.

And yet every month since, the Brothas have been meeting in coffee shops and restaurants and museums and private homes to discuss everything, both fiction and nonfiction.

The club, Tate said, attracts at least 15 core members a month — more than he imagined.

Over an iced coffee the other day, Tate talked about the evolution of the club from social outlet to social do-gooders who share a joy for the written word.

In addition to reading, members volunteer with Boys Who D.A.R.E. (Dream Achieve Read and Empower), a local nonprofit organization that promotes male literacy.

Brothas read to Boys Who D.A.R.E. members and provide the financial support the organization needs to expose members to cultural events here and across the country. They are currently raising money to take a group of boys to the presidential inauguration.

"It's been fun," said Tate. "It's taken on a life of its own."

Interest in the club, he said, continues to increase. Its Web site — www.brothaswellread.com — gets thousands of hits each month from men in other cities wanting to know how to start a club or what the group is reading.

It hit Tate recently that he ought to take advantage of the audience he'd created and launch an online book club that would allow men from other parts of the country who didn't have time to meet face-to-face to log into a chat room to discuss books.

Brothas, he said, will have its first online gathering July 29, when they will discuss "They Tell Me of a Home" by Daniel Black, an associate professor at Clark Atlanta University.

Anyone interested in joining the discussion must register to become a member of the club, click on the link for the online chat room and create a user name and password.

To date, Tate said, 18 people from Atlanta to New York have signed up.

"It's exciting," he said.

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