The Tough Guy Book Club meets at the Cock’n’Bull on the first Wednesday of every month to stimulate their minds by engaging in bare knuckled conversation about contemporary literature. 

President of the Launceston chapter Pod Pickering said he reached out to the Tough Guy Book Club co-founder Shay Leighton to create a local chapter. 

“I read a lot but I don’t know a lot of people who read and I like beer,” Mr Pickering said. 

“So I thought what better than a book, beer and a bit of a chat.”

The Launceston chapter started two months ago. 

“It is kind of aimed at guys who maybe don’t read as much as they want to or don’t know what to read,” Mr Pickering said.

Mr Leighton said the mantra of the group was to read books by “tough guys”, being guided by a loose, central theme of masculinity. 

“We’ve read two books by Ernest Hemingway, and he’s a perfect example of the masculine,” he said.

“His books are strong and pioneering, they’re about conflict and bullfighting, loving, drinking and war and the ocean.”

For more information about the Tough Guy Book Club, visit www.facebook.com/ToughGuyBookClub.