The Boozy Book Club is a new Facebook group designed to help those who want to learn more but are being hampered by their bank accounts.
Lockdown has in general been a pile of shit, but a few positives have poked their heads out of the steaming mound. Two of these, increased interest in education and new initiatives, have come together in the form of Boozy Book Club.
‘Boozy Book Club originated from a book swap idea after a number of friends and I had been safely circulating books between us to further our knowledge, and fight off the monotony of lockdown.’ Explains the man behind the idea Tom ‘Cav’ Cavanagh.
The group runs on a simple principle, some people have books on their shelves gathering dust, or duplicates, and don’t have the cash currently to buy new tomes to keep on learning. In the group people can post requests for books they’d like to read or books they have available to swap. Once a match has been found they can communicate in DM’s about swapping details, whether it is to be short term, long term or even permanent, address for posting etc.
‘The main aim for this, is to encourage the learning and betterment of people within our industry.’ Continues Tom, ‘For too long now people have considered the hospitality sector to be one of low-skill, something even the government decided. For me this could not be further from the truth, throughout the years of working within this industry, the level of creativity and intelligence is something that should be praised.’
The Boozy Book Club is more than just a swapping marketplace. Tom is approaching certain industry folk to share their recommended top 5 books in both industry and non-industry categories. First up was Cocktail Trading Co’s Elliot Ball whose list included some great recommendations in both areas, several we had not heard of.
This aspect is important to Tom as he is keen ‘not to cannibalise peoples book sales by only promoting swapping’. The reading lists, as well as recommendations and reviews, will ‘if anything hopefully drive more sales as the awareness of the books are raised’. It is also a great way for people to see if it is a book they want to add to their collection before forking out the, sometimes, costly cover price.
If you would like to join Boozy Book Club then head to the Facebook page there you will find more info as well as the precautions currently being employed to ensure things are Covid safe. It is worth pointing out that even if you are not up for swapping, the reading lists and recommendations alone are worth a join.
As Tom puts it, ‘Hopefully this provides a platform for the continuation of learning and excellence in our industry.’