Whoever said the sequel is never better than the original?

Around this time last year, the Goons of Tough Guy Book Club participated in their monthly challenge of going to a bona fide book shop… It could have been an international chain or the op shop just down the road, but it had to be a place where you could purchase a printed page.

This year, Goons were challenged to go one step further with their bookshops and take a photo with the book seller themselves, similar to last years number about getting a photo of yourself with a librarian. What a happy coincidence that this month’s challenge happens to coincide with ‘Love Your Book Day!’

As always, it’s been fantastic to see lots of photos spill into the Pool Hall private group about their trips to their local haunts. Whether it be solo ventures in Bulimba or groups so large like the combined efforts of Eltham, Diamond Creek, Mernda, Montmorency, Northcote and Reservoir Chapters that they had more patrons than fingers on one’s hands.

Again, there’s an old favourite with Nhulunbuy whose one and only bookshop was closed, so they made a pilgrimage to their local library instead; We appreciate the effort fellas.

The basic rundown of the challenge was to take a photo with a book seller and post it into the Pool Hall with the tag #Dealer26. We promise that they don’t bite! Buying books is optional of course, but it might help sweeten the deal, and having more books in one’s library is never a bad thing.

 

Thanks to our Tough Guy Book Club Goons for helping keep their local chains alive, a big thanks also to the ones who helped organise their bookstore crawls on Love Your Bookshop Day, and an even bigger thanks to the local stores that help keep the printed page a thing. You all rock.

- Mitchell T Porteous