By Darren Saffin
The Tough Guy Book Club started eight years ago, when two friends Shay and Tom decided to meet regularly at a Collingwood pub to talk about books. From that sprang the idea for a book club for men that met in pubs.
There are now 42 chapters across Australia, 1 in the US, 1 in the UK and 1 in New Zealand, who all read the same book and all meet at 7pm on the first Wednesday of the month.
Many people can’t get their heads around the concept of a book club just for men that meet in pubs, but the Tough Guy Book Club is all about getting men to read and talk. Typically, men aren’t members of book clubs and a lot of men either don’t read books or read narrowly. The themes in the books give a starting point for conversations about men’s lives and pubs are a good place for these conversations to happen.
As a Book Club we have two rules; “no dickheads”, and don’t talk about work, which limits conversation. One of the first things a man will say when they meet another man is, ‘What do you do?’ and it frames their whole interaction. We are all much more than what we do for a job.
There are four Tough Guy Book Club Chapters in the West You can find Tough Guy Book Club in the west at the following venues:
Altona
Hopheads 78 Pier St
Footscray
Bar Josephine 295 Barkly St
Yarraville
Railway Hotel 35 Anderson St
Williamstown
Customs House Hotel 161 Nelson Place
