The Plummeting Tortoises Reading Group was born in September of 1995. Although they didn’t realize that they were to be known as that at the time.

In 1996, the original group (consisting of Bussard, Dolmatz, Downing and Machin) were reading a book called Lempriere's Dictionary by Lawrence Norfolk. There was a scene in the book in which there were tortoises on the roof of an opera house that could presumably fly. The opera house caught fire and much to everyone's surprise the tortoises plummeted to the ground as opposed to taking flight.

Original member Randy Downing passed away in the fall of 2004 and was ultimately replaced by Clark.

In October, 2014, Machin retired from the school district and buggered on off to Texas to be closer to his daughter and her family.  In February, 2015, Sult joined the group and until a new photo is taken his head has been awkwardly Photoshopped onto the body of Machin.  Then in May of the same year, Clark determined that his batting average as a contributing member was below the Mendoza Line and sent himself to the book group minor leagues where he will try to get his form back with the Greensboro Gekkos.  He will stay on as the proprietor of this website, however, in the name of archival science.  Finally, in October of 2015, Rose signed up to make the Tortoises a foursome once again.

The group alternates book choices with the “chooser” serving as the host of the monthly discussion gatherings. Truth be told, however, they spend most of the Saturday afternoon sessions eating good food, drinking various things, and listening to a lot of different kinds of music. 

Update: In November, 2024, Backman was added, bringing the number of Tortoises to five.