World's Strongest Librarian

I’ve done a lot of writing in the past year. I’ve written posts that I thought would be well-received and pretty much flopped. I’ve written posts that I thought were so-so that wound up being extremely popular.

A lot of people have asked me where I get my ideas. Basically, I get through each day without dying and keep my eyes open for observations. I spin those observations out into smart-sounding pseudo-philosophy and away we go!

But seriously, it’s been a wonderful year of blogging. The 12 posts below are not the ones with the most comments, but they have received by far the most traffic and web attention.

1. The Things We Already Know

When things begin to snowball for a blog and real momentum builds up, a lot can happen very quickly. The Things We Already Know is only a couple of weeks old at this point, but has received well over 50,000 page views. Honestly, this was a post I wasn’t in love with. I didn’t have any real expectations for it. Shows what I know. It is by far my most-viewed post. I think I’ll always believe the things that it says, for what it’s worth.

2. Book Review: Where The Wild Things Are

Apparently a lot of people look up book reviews of Where The Wild Things Are. And as my blog’s authority and popularity has grown, more and more people have found me via this little post about one of my favorite books of all time. It didn’t hurt that I’ve highlighted my disgust for the weenies who have tried to ban this book.

3. Reasons To Keep At Least One Journal

Since I wrote this post, my daily journal writing has not been as consistent as in previous years. The blog has been, I feel, an adequate substitute for me. My training log and nutrition diaries and book-reading journal are still going strong.

4. Book Review: Convict Conditioning

This was my first real realization about how powerful a blog can be when it is perceived by the search engines as an authority. Type Book Review Convict Conditioning into Google and guess who is usually number one? And wow, I’ve made a lot of affiliate sales from this little review I wrote back in December.

If you’re a blogger and you’ve heard about how Pagerank and Authority are useful for your blog, it’s true. If you want a great explanation of these concepts, check out PageRank Explained by my buddy and mentor, Yaro Starak.

5. The Terrible Day I Met Bruce Campbell

Good grief. The only real story is that I made a fool of myself and it’s an awesome story. I’ll never get sick of it, now that the shell-shock is over. This was my first experiment with using the Audio Player I use to stream my audio stuff with. This is one story that I told for mostly selfish reasons: I knew it would be a hit and get me some traction.

6. Book Review: Watership Down

Awesome book about so much more than rabbits. This piece also resulted in the nastiest piece of hate mail I ever received (or probably will ever receive). I addressed this issue later with this post, Three Great Novels Featuring Disturbed Protagonists.

7. A Life Lesson From Victor Frankl

I don’t know if I have more respect for anyone who has ever lived. Victor Frankl has influenced my life in ways that nobody but my parents have been able to. Turns out a lot of other people feel the same way. Frankl survived the Holocaust and dedicated his life to helping others. I aspire to be the shadow of his shadow of his shadow. It would be enough.

8. Book Review: Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

Another entry from the banned book series. A lot of people search for these books online, looking for criticism, gross pictures, nostalgia, and more. I love these books; looking at the pictures puts me instantly into the tent in my backyard in Nevada, reading by a flashlight and wishing the sun would come up.

9. Seven Quotes That Will Make You Love Kurt Vonnegut

I wore black the day Kurt died. I loved that man. Luckily, I’m not alone. After I read Slaughterhouse Five, I did not read a book by another author until I had read every single word Vonnegut had published up to that point. I reread at least four of his books every year. No damn cradle...

10. The Easiest Way To Become A Negative Person

I officially belong to the Church of Don’t Be A Dick. Who wants to design a logo for me? Other people can be the best part of life, or the worst. I really, really don’t want to ever be the dark spot in someone else’s day. Life is hard enough without us all making it harder for each other. I believed it then, I believe it now, I’ll believe it it 50 years.

11. Book Review: Enter The Kettlebell!

Kettlebells are awesome and this book was my first real introduction to them. In the year after I read the book, I would go on to become an RKC certified kettlebell instructor and completely go off the deep end with my strongman obsession. This was also the time when I really started working with Adam Glass, which eventually led to one of the most rewarding friendships of my life and the whole Walk The Road Less Traveled experiment.

12. The Human Conversation In Keywords

I was learning how to use Google Analytics (which I high recommend, bloggers) and I realized that I could see which phrases people were finding my blog with. I’m so unfocused that many, many people just stumble in here by accident, say, “What in the world?” and hit the road. An illuminating experience for me, however. This was a lot of fun to write and was equal parts poignant and hilarious.

And there you go. These weren’t necessarily my favorites, or yours possibly, but they have treated me right by the unfeeling laws of algorithms and pagerank formulae.

And now for a moment of complete self-serving grubbing. If you’ve been around here for longer than an hour, I’d love to know if you have a favorite post.

I love you madly, Loyal Weirdo

Josh

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It used to seem like an impossible goal, on par with jumping into orbit, swimming to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, or being able to divide fractions.

I want to sit still for one minute. 60 seconds of peace.

When I was six years old, I started to twitch with involuntary tics. This did not change for nearly 27 years. It was not until December of 2009 that I was able to sit still for one complete minute without distracting myself with things like talking, guitar, video games, or typing.

Those were still small victories, but they were not on my terms. I had to do something else so that I didn’t have tics. But what I really wanted was just to sit still because it was time to sit still, nothing else.

Yesterday things changed

I sat still for two hours and twenty minutes. 8400 seconds. I sat as still as you’re probably sitting right now, unless Tourette’s is contagious and you’re accumulating your own foolish repertoire.

No tics. Not one. No straining. Not even a little bit.

Understand: this has not happened in 27 years. [Read more...]

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How I Learned To Love Reading And You Can Too – Guest Post by Eric Watermolen

by Josh Hanagarne on March 18, 2010

by Eric Watermolen

I used to hate reading. Maybe it was all the boring reading assignments back in high school. Maybe it was the books I was forced to read and report on every detail of plot, theme, setting… Maybe it was a lack of interest. Maybe it was because there was something better on TV, and TV watching required less effort. I feel that I could go on and on making excuses to avoid reading.

Then one day, several years after high school, I had the bright idea that reading could actually be fun. I’m not sure what sparked it. It may have been [Read more...]

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