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 yourself, and to add a page to your story. This month’s challenge was simple in concept: go to a place that sells books. Real live, printed books. That’s it. Could be your local indie bookstore, a second-hand joint, a book café, a museum shop, or even a market stall. The idea was to celebrate these places while they’re still around — because let’s be honest, the world doesn’t make it easy for them anymore.
And as always, the goons delivered.
Many chapters all around Australia and places like Washington D.C., Belfast, Singapore, and Auckland made an outing of it, catching up for a coffee or beer while touring their town’s bookshelves and backroom stacks.
Lots of others made a solo visit, like Auckland goon Courtney Hicks who shared, “A favourite Sunday morning ritual is heading down to the eclectic Central Flea Market to hunt around for some weird and wonderful collections.”
Several goons made the most of their travels, dropping in at ‘local’ bookshops while visiting places like London, Italy, France, and Japan.
And then there’s our London South goons visiting their local indie bookshop meets bar meets live music venue…all in one. Sounds like an epic place full of some of our favourite things!
We saw photos from everywhere, and shops with names like Book Bird, Book Face, Book Bucket, Bookish, Through the Looking Glass, and The Wandering Dodo. Quite a few stopped in at Dymocks, our Australian bookstore partner who features a TGBC display in many of their stores. And more than one shared a common observation that the workers at these shops are not only friendly, but super knowledgeable about the books they sell.
It also happened to be Love Your Book Shop Day this month, an annual celebration of supporting bookshops, especially independent ones. Some champion Goons took it upon themselves to organise an outing, trading our regular pub crawl in for a book shop crawl in their town. Many took the opportunity to support many of their local book dealers while checking off the challenge. Well done to those who stepped up to run the events!
It didn’t have to be about buying anything (though plenty did). It was about showing up, and being present in a space that still values words, thought, and maybe a slower pace. Whether they walked out with a novel, a cookbook, a self-help title, or nothing at all, our goons did something good this month. They championed and supported shops that keep stories alive. And that’s fuckin’ cool.
#Local25
By Josh King
