How Becoming a Librarian Saved Me
Josh Hanagarne's The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's is his take on growing up as the son of a gold miner, experiencing a Mormon upbringing, battling Tourette's, and becoming a kettlebell-lifting librarian in Salt Lake City. He talked about the latter with Tip Sheet. When Publishers Weekly asked me to write a piece called How Becoming A Librarian Saved Me, I thought: Bottom of Form Saved from what? Saved for what? Salvation means different things to different people. I use two definitions for myself. The first comes from my sexy, two volume Oxford English Dictionary: Preservation from destruction, ruin, loss, or calamity. I’ve come to my second, personal, less official definition through my work at the library. The ability to tell my own story, articulately and honestly. I was in the staff area when my manager called me. “We have a patron who has a question for you,” she said. “I think you’re probably the o