Editor note: This is a guest post by Josh Hanagarne, World’s Strongest Librarian
“Mrs, Hanagarne, good to see you again,” said the doctor as he lowered a pair of long, sharp scissors into my throat. The blades were especially long, narrow, and bent at a strange angle, although the angle was well-suited for its purpose: extraction.
“You too, Doctor.”
“What was it this time?”
I was four years old. After a trip to the library, we had returned home with an armful of books. The morning of the visit to Dr. Scissors, I had been reading a story with my mom called Mr. Gopher. Mr. Gopher’s favorite food was marigolds. My mom had a marigold garden. The second her back was turned, I ran outside and ate a handful of marigolds, which have long, pointy, slivery seeds.
This scenario replayed itself often, with varying degrees of damage done. I formed many associations: Doctors = pain and stainless steel. The ER is a place to make friends. Gophers = friends worth being suspicious of, et cetera.
But the one association I never made was that books were anything but good. Stories did not lead me to the doctor, marigolds did. Books weren’t responsible for sending me to the hospital over and over after I’d eaten something, jumped off of something way too high, or gotten into a fight at school because I was playing Conan.
Despite the injuries, mounting medical costs, and exasperation of my parents, I kept reading and they kept reading to me. When I would get hurt, my soothing treat was rarely ice cream of sympathy, but another trip to the library.
I became a librarian because of all these things. I see that same little boy walk through my doors every day at work. His head is huge, his glasses are always bent, and he can’t decide which books he wants, so he sweeps them into a basket and takes them all. And that boy is never happier than when he has a new stack of stories to explore.
I am still that boy, and now I have a son of my own. One day, I have no doubt that we will be in the ER because of something he has tried after reading about it. I will try to talk sense to him, but I will not discourage reading, stories, or imagination. I am who I am because I made friends early and often. Some of the friends were real, some were not. The distinction was, is, and will always be unimportant to me.
Josh Hanagarne
Get Stronger, Get Smarter, Live Better…Every Day
About the Author: Josh Hanagarne is the twitchy giant behind World’s Strongest Librarian, a blog about living with Tourette’s Syndrome, kettlebells, book recommendations, buying pants when you’re 6’8”, old-time strongman training, and much more. Please subscribe to Josh’s RSS Updates to stay in touch.
Posted on January 11 2010
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Hi Josh.
This is very cool. I am a supporter of reading books as you also are. They are a wealth of what we have as people. It makes sense to not blame the books for opening our minds, as that is not where any problem comes from. Opening the mind is always a plus.
This story reminded me of when I was very small and would go to the library, and would want to get a lot of books. They had a 50-book limit, so when I went up with more than 50 books, I ended up putting a few back, and taking 50 home. Certainly cool reading.
Interesting about those associations we make when small. They sure can stick with us.
.-= Armen Shirvanian´s last blog ..When You Feel Unstoppable, Take Notice =-.
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Super cool post Josh. It’s amazing how powerful the imagination of children is. To them, something they have read in a book is completely reasonable even though they mind end up in the ER. It’s only later in life that we learn limitations.
.-= Srinivas Rao´s last blog ..The Single Most Important Quality for Peak Performance =-.
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What a touching story about your childhood Josh. I believe that we are heavily influenced by our environment as we grow up that a part of it stays with us forever. It’s nice that you are giving your son the same type of lessons that you went through. Thanks for writing this Josh and thanks Oscar for sharing this. :)
.-= Hulbert´s last blog ..Finding Relief: A Painful Way to Get Out of Pain =-.
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It amazes me how many people I come across on a day-to-day basis who simply don’t read books. Nothing. Sure, they’ll fill their mind with trash reading the days tabloid newspaper or a celebrity mag, but real reading is quite a rare pastime these days.
I personally am always reading a book. Usually I have two on the go at any one time. A fiction book, mostly war/spy/SAS/CIA type books and a book for learning like 4HWW, Crush It! or a language learning book.
I think reading books is essential to becoming a better person. I can express myself much more eloquently than many non-readers can. In short: they suck and we’re all awesome!
.-= Ian Nuttall´s last blog ..You Complain Too Much =-.
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Hmmm… well, this was to me a story about passion. When you’re into something, it filters the way you interpret reality. It’s that powerful. I think it’s a wonderful thing you discovered your passion so young and followed it. In my experience, it’s something very rare.
Eduard
.-= Ideas With A Kick´s last blog ..Positive thinking won’t help you now =-.
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Reading bought me a lot of pleasure in New Zealand more than most folk. When I was growing up, New only had two TV channels and they were absolute crap! I loved The Hardy Boys as well as those Choose Your Own Adventure books where at the bottom of each page there is a choice to make which will take you to different pages. They were brilliant as far as I’m concerned.
.-= Gordie – Lifestyle Design For You´s last blog ..The Three F-words You Must Know To Succeed. =-.
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I wrote a post about a book I read recently called shantaram and it was truly amazing. They’re making it into a film but I felt like I was there, a character in the story. The sign of a great story teller! :-)
.-= Amit Sodha – The Power Of Choice´s last blog ..A Quick Guide To Dealing With Negative People =-.
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The other day I was at our local community college and took a look at their library. They have gone from about 50 20 foot shelves of books down to 5. I asked what had happened to the library and was told, “none of the students come here to use the books anymore.”
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Mark, I’m not surprised. I’m not a librarian who worries himself sick about books vanishing forever. The medium of paper is not that important to me, although it does have its charm. I’m more concerned that the act of reading—the very nature of reading—has changed. Our brains are becoming more conditioned to scan info on the web. The president of ALA calls reading a “real” book “hard reading.” Meaning it takes effort. Diminishing attention spans will make this a very, very important trend to watch in the future.
.-= Josh Hanagarne´s last blog ..How To Get People To Read Your Blog By Crushing Them Utterly With The 48 Laws Of Power =-.
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Keep posting stuff like this i really like it
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