World's Strongest Librarian

Book Review: Unbroken by Laura Hillendbrand

Did you ever seen the movie Papillon? If so, do you remember the part (spoiler–skip to the second paragraph if you haven’t seen it) when you realize that Steve McQueen is going back into solitary again? For five years! It’s abrupt and awful all I could say was “Oh no.” It made me feel sick. [...]

March 14, 2012 READ MORE →

I signed up for the Highland Games – First event in July, 2012

Y’all, I just sent off my registration form for my first Highland Games competition. Why? Because it sounds fun and I’ve grown bored with a lot of my training. And I get to wear a kilt, which gives me a reason to do some direct calf work in hopes that my strong-but-thin legs won’t get [...]

March 13, 2012 READ MORE →

Inspiration vs Intimidation

I’m not a social lifter, which is why I usually do my strength training in my backyard. But when I occasionally find myself in a box gym, I put up the hood on my sweatshirt, go find a corner, and try to forget everyone else is there. This is pretty easy to do when the [...]

March 12, 2012 READ MORE →

260 lb Stone Lift – Who want to come to Scotland with me?

I’ve set myself a new goal for 2013. A stone lifting tour of Scotland. At the very least I’ll be attempting to lift the Dinnie Stones, the Inver Stone (I’m hoping to be able to put it overhead, but we’ll see), and the Fianna Stone, which I think I’m probably the closest to being able [...]

March 9, 2012 READ MORE →

Poll: Best John Irving Novel?

I just finished listening to A Prayer for Owen Meany on audiobook, which reminds me: it needs to go on the list of great audiobooks. If you got annoyed by the ALL CAPS of Owen in the book, you don’t have to look at them on audio. Also, with so much emphasis on how strange [...]

March 8, 2012 READ MORE →

Comic Review: Sweet Tooth

By Casey Brazeal Jeff Lemire draws the kind of sketchy textured lines that are perfect for tree bark. They hatch over each other and bend at sharp angles. They’re the wrong lines for new cars and bikini babes, but they’re perfect for old people and antlers. Sweet Tooth is an ongoing horror comic from Vertigo [...]

March 7, 2012 READ MORE →

Stuck in a Rut With Your Lady? This This Amulet

As I trudged towards the library, drunk on sleeplessness and spite, a man appeared in the periphery. “Hey!” I turned. A pony-tailed man with a bronzed complexion and perhaps fifty summers behind him hailed me from the immediate northwest. A man too old to be calling anyone “bro.” “Hey bro?” “Hi,” I said, stopping.

March 5, 2012 READ MORE →

Keep the Good People Close to you

After I was done speaking in Topeka a couple of weeks ago, someone said to me: “It’s so inspiring that you never gave up during the worst of it.” It’s a tempting fiction that I would love to step into, basking in my own majesty, but it’s a fiction. If I have made any changes [...]

March 5, 2012 READ MORE →

(free) Book Recommender Service Now Available

See the dull gray menu bar at the top of the screen? See where it says “Fancy a book recommendation?” If you’re looking for something to read, today, tomorrow, or any other day until the end of the universe, take heed and go click on it. Josh

March 2, 2012 READ MORE →

More Non-Urgent but Awesome: A Recent Phone Book Tear

When people ask me why I like to work at the libray, the answers are always the same: The groupies The performance enhancing drugs and the phone books I get to tear when we discard them It had been a few months since I had tried, but yesterday I saw the “Greater Iowa” phone book [...]