Latest News

December 10, 2025

Name:  Philippe Lambert  Chapter:  Lisle, IL  What is your story?  I grew up in Maine, which is the Northeastern most state in the United States. I have visited 49 out of the 50 states. I am currently living in Lisle, IL with my wife,...

December 08, 2025

Each month at Tough Guy Book Club we issue a challenge to our members. It gets us out of our comfort zone and pushes us to try something new, something difficult, and adds a page to our stories. Some challenges are just bloody important,...

December 01, 2025

Name:  Kent Kingston  Chapter:  Lake Macquarie, NSW  What is your story?  It probably started with my dad reading various books to us in the evening: 'White Fang,' 'Sun on the Stubble' and the Narnia series are three I remember. I developed a hunger for reading and...

November 12, 2025

Book shops. The smell of paper, ink, sometimes dust, maybe a hint of coffee from the café next door. They’re curators of stories. And right now, it’s bloody hard to be one.   Every month, the Tough Guy Book Club issues a challenge to its members…something to do, to learn, to push...

October 27, 2025

Lisle, Illinois, is a quiet pocket about forty minutes west of Chicago. It’s home to the world-famous Morton Arboretum, a cracking local university, and a small community that values connection. It’s a place that knows how to slow down, pour a pint, and have a chat. Sounds about right for...

October 12, 2025

They say that a society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit. It’s a great saying, so we thought we would test it out.  Every month Tough Guy Book Club sets a challenge to all members –...

October 08, 2025

“Come check it out. There are stars in the grass,” Joe said to a bunch of us who were chatting on the front porch of the main cabin. We looked at Joe and then each other wondering if he was joking or hallucinating.  We...

September 24, 2025

Name:  Michael Newton   Chapter:  Mayfield   What is your story?  I am a 52 year old straight, white, middle-class man living in Newcastle. My first car was a 1969 Valiant Regal that had been chopped to make it a convertible. It was white with yellow/orange/red flames and...

September 03, 2025

At Tough Guy Book Club we are proud of putting robust conversation back into the pub, and each month we do just that in venues across the world. So, when we got the opportunity to put some of that same robust talk into a...

August 13, 2025

Tough Guy Book Club was born on a pub crawl back in 2014. Over ten years on, we still honour those roots every August with our annual crawl. This year we set the crawl as the monthly challenge. ‘Cause, why the hell not? Challenges...

August 06, 2025

Name:  Luke Augutis  Chapter:  Bundaberg  What is your story?  Married, Father of 3, Grew up in Regional Queensland. Spend much of my personal time outdoors, fishing, or playing with cars.  How long have you been with TGBC? First Book?  2024 Honeybee  How did you...

July 28, 2025

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years, it’s that when you plant the seed of a good thing, it will grow in places you didn’t expect. Case in point: one of our newest chapters has just sprouted in Singapore.  It’s not exactly...

July 16, 2025

At Tough Guy Book Club, we think libraries are cool. So cool that we put it on a shirt. So cool that you’ll usually find a couple of Goons fighting over loans of the monthly book at any library where we have a presence....

July 10, 2025

We have some great traditions at Tough Guy Book Club. One that we look forward to each June is the Bourdain Day Dinner.   Celebrity chef, TV host, and author Anthony Bourdain, is a favourite among many TGBC goons, including Collingwood Original Dane Botfield, who...

July 07, 2025

Tough Guy Book Club began in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia in 2012 and has since spread across the globe. Our expansion into the United States started slowly. It was a dear friend now departed – vale Dane – who made our first landing,...

June 18, 2025

Every month, the Tough Guy Book Club issues a challenge to its members. Something to push them, to challenge them, and to give them something interesting to add to their story. Challenges take all different forms…getting your cholesterol checked, designing a T-shirt, writing a...

June 11, 2025

Name:  Neil Grant  Chapter:  Diamond Creek  What is your story?  I was born in Glasgow in the Year of the Fire Horse and came to Australia at age 13 to escape the rain and deep-fried Mars Bars. I’m a dad of 3 and a...

June 09, 2025

Welcome to Redcliffe, QLD. It’s a beautiful seaside town just over the bridge from the hustle and bustle of big city Brisbane. They have a team in the National Rugby League now. You can go down to Scarborough and sit in the brewery and...

May 27, 2025

Name:  Peter Machell (rhymes with Rachel) Chapter:  Fortitude Valley  What’s your story?  I've been on this planet for just over half a century. But I still learn stuff every day. I may be an over-opinionated geek but I generally prefer analogue to digital. I'm...

May 16, 2025

At Tough Guy Book Club we are into our merch. You will be hard pressed to find a group photo of one of our meets without someone in the trademark black t-shirt, proudly displaying our logo. We also love to issue our members a...

May 05, 2025

Name:  Amal Amarsi  Chapter:  Ringwood (I originally started at the Warrandyte chapter)  What is your story?  So many chapters, and stories within them - but ultimately I’m just a guy who is fortunate to be where I am in life, (alive) living in a...

April 23, 2025

If you’ve ever spent any time in Canberra, you will know that the north/south rivalry runs deep, those North of the lake don’t like to venture South and vice versa. When the two existing chapters in town, both on the North side, started getting...

April 10, 2025

There’s a certain sound to a bunch of goons arriving at Licola Wilderness Village. It’s not quiet. Cars pulling up, boots hitting gravel, backs cracking from the long journey, shouts across the way when you spot someone you haven’t seen since the last time...

April 07, 2025

Austin, deep in the heart of Texas, bills itself as the “Live Music Capital of the World”.  It hosts internationally-recognised events like South by Southwest (SXSW) and Austin City Limits, and has been home to some fucking legendary musicians including Willie Nelson, Janis Joplin,...

April 04, 2025

Every month Tough Guy Book Club sets a challenge to all members. These challenges are to add a page to your story, because at TGBC we are obsessed with stories. For March 2025 the goons were asked to go get their cholesterol checked and...