Cathy Lamb: Josh, I absolutely loved THE WORLD’S STRONGEST LIBRARIAN.

Here are a few of the reasons why, in no particular order: First, your love of books and your mother’s love of books. I grew up in the same type of household, with a mother who was handing us books when we were still babies.  We all read. It was just what we did, so I related to you from the start.

Second, I appreciated your honesty about your challenges with Tourette’s Syndrome and how you wrote about it with sincerity and humor, and zero self pity.

Third, I liked learning about being Mormon and your faith trajectory, as I would call it. I’m Christian, but have questioned many aspects of my faith from day one, so your thoughtful introspection helped me to do some more thinking.

Fourth, your work as a librarian. I laughed out loud so many times.

Now I’m going to ask you a question instead of being a gushing fan.  Why did you write the book? What was your intent in writing about your life?

Josh Hanagarne: It really happened by accident.  I’d been writing a blog called World’s Strongest Librarian http://worldsstrongestlibrarian.com/  just to keep track of my workouts, because I kept losing my strength training notebooks. Two months into that blog, Seth Godin sent me an email and said “You should be writing a book! I’m sending this to my agent!” forty eight hours later, for no reason whatsoever, I had a literary agent, but no book, not even an idea for a book.

I hate to be bored, and writing a book sounded like an adventure, so away we went. It just took forever to figure out what it might be. I didn’t have any specific intentions except to see what might happen.

For the readers here who don’t know what Tourette’s Syndrome is can you explain it and then tell us what is hardest about having it?

Tourette’s is a neurological condition which causes involuntary vocalizations and/or movements. It kind of feels like needing to sneeze, but all the time, everywhere, in every part of your body. The symptoms are called tics. I have a very extreme case, so the worst parts for me are the pain and injuries in my body, and the relentless challenges of being in public but not being able to control the noises I make or what my body does.

One of my favorite passages, “I learned that I could alter the speed of certain tics with some success. Especially with the big whiplash tics, this was a revelation. Sometimes having tics at half speed released me from the urges. That would save huge amounts of wear and tear.”

At the end of the book, you seemed to have gained a great deal of control over the Tourettes, and then you seemed to back track a bit. How are you now?

Worse than ever. I’m thirty six years old and it’s so much worse than it was at any time I described during the book. And it seems to be worsening every day. Not sure what to say about that besides it really sucks and I’ll grind my teeth and keep going.

I’m sorry to heart that, I truly am.

I’m sure you have been inundated with questions from parents of kids with Tourette’s.  What are a few pieces of advice that you offer them?

All kids need the same things. They need to feel loved and safe and they need help finding whatever they can be good at. Kids with Tourette’s need those things, but it often takes the shape of parents learning about the disorder, being patient, and helping the child learn how to talk about the condition so it can be explained as needed.

When did you start writing THE WORLD’S STRONGEST LIBRARIAN, how long did it take, and how did you write it? For example, did you brainstorm, outline, organize, did you set daily word count goals, how many times did you edit it?

It took about four years in one way or another. The story kept changing. Then we’d submit a proposal that would go nowhere and have to retool based on feedback. I’m not really an outliner or a word count person. I love to write and look forward to it every day.

With the nature of Tourette’s, I’m rarely capable of sitting still long enough to write for more than fifteen minutes a day. Sometimes that would get me 1000 words, sometimes it would get me 100. My goal was simply to write every day and keep my fingers moving. I learned that I have to make a huge mess before I can clean it up. I don’t ask myself editorial questions on the fly.

I went through eight drafts myself, and three with the editor who bought the book.

I loved this sentence, “Whenever the teenagers are quiet, I assume it’s because they’re impregnating each other.” What are your top three reasons for being a librarian?

These probably aren’t my top three, but if you can count, you’ll concede that these are, at the very least, three reasons:

1. I’m not well-suited to anything else
2. I love the library’s mission – fight ignorance and promote curiosity and literacy
3. It’s fun

I know this question might be hard because you’re a book addict, but I must ask you for your top five favorite books EVER.

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

How much are you currently dead lifting and bench pressing now? How many hours are you in the gym per week? (Readers: Josh is six foot seven.) 

Not sure about deadfliting; I don’t test maxes. I know I can deadlift 525 pounds for a set of 15, so my upper limit would probably be in the 600 range. I don’t really bench press much, so I have no idea. I don’t think I’ve ever benched more than 350, and almost certainly couldn’t do that now.

I usually lift three times a week for 20-40 minutes. If I’m watching TV I might work do some additional work on my hands while I’m vegging.

Your story is very personal. Were there challenges in that regard?

Yes. When you spend this much time thinking about yourself, you learn who you are. When you start turning over the rocks you don’t get to choose what’s under them. I learned to love and hate myself in ways that I never would have suspected were possible, prior to the book.

How have your family members and friends reacted to the book?

With wonderful positivity and support.

THE WORLD’S STRONGEST LIBRARIAN is so popular. How has it changed your life?

Ha! I wish that popularity translated to more sales! My life is still the same in most ways. Forty hours a week at the library. Family. Lifting and books. But I also get to go speak and meet people like Stephen King and have experiences that never would have presented themselves without the book.

More than anything, I like to meet people. Anyone. Everyone. And this book has put me in rooms with thousands of fine folks that I probably never would have met otherwise. I love that.

What are you writing now?

About to turn in the next non-fiction book. I’ll keep the subject to myself, but will give you the first line:

The French have a saying, but I can’t remember what it is, so we’ll speak no more of the French.

I love it. Can’t wait to buy it. Thanks for the interview, Josh. Happy writing and happy reading.