Dear Lit Loves,
I'm in the midst of a major reading holiday as it appears the entire publishing population is on vacation. So I ordered a bunch of books, mainly memoir, because as I tell my husband when he wants to order the movie Avatar from Blockbuster online: I deal in reality and I don't do blue people.
Just now I finished reading The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne and I am now more
confused about the concept of Tourette's Syndrome than before I read the book. Essentially, the memoir revolves around this man's experiences with Tourette's, how he learns to cope with it, and how it affects every aspect of his life including the milestones we mark in life like marriage, kids, career, etc. Initially, I was dismayed that even though there is not a cure for Tourette's, why didn't he or his parents keep investigating ways to alleviate/moderate the tics? Maybe I'm just incredibly inquisitive when it comes to rare diseases for which there is no cure ( I have three of them by the way); however, I would never not go to the best institutions and researchers in order to get suggestions on remedies. You'd be surprised what you could gain from entering a clinical trial; trust me, I have. Did none of the suggested drugs for Tourette's work? Did he choose not to try them? There is no extensive information on that part of his experience. The one thing I noticed that did work for this writer was that when he was engaged in activities that had his full focus whether it was music, weight-lifting, reading, writing, etc. his tics appeared to be less of a problem. It would stand to reason that if you are engaged in activities that keep you spellbound and engaged, then dopamine levels would be increasing. Did he ever try any medication that increased dopamine levels? I don't know because again, there was very little information about his inquiry in that area of treatment.
What does appear to work for him in resolving the tics is getting his breathing under control which is interesting because at that point I kept wondering, dude, why not try yoga? Why not go the meditation route? I noticed that his Tourette's symptoms were aggravated whenever he was in a time of high anxiety or distressed about what was happening around him. I wanted to know why he didn't seek out several neurologists and why he attempted to cope with all this independently. There were honestly times when I wanted to give him the name and office location of a friend of mine who is a psychiatrist.
The one point of agreement I had with him was regarding religion and his questioning of it. There are people who know/believe and there are those of us still wondering/questioning. I get where this author is coming from here. My dad has faith like a rock; he faced down a stem-cell transplant with a firm conviction and faith. I went through the stem-cell transplant with him going what the hell are we supposed to learn from this? Why is this happening to our family? Let's put it this way, I can really wrestle with God to put it mildly. Honestly, I don't think if you are questioning your beliefs that you don't have them; I think it's part of the process of building what kind of faith you have. I certainly don't think it means you have turned your back on your religion.
And I don't think libraries are doomed. I can assure you I will not be reading books via tablet any time soon or in the near future. It's just not the way I read or roll. I do think libraries need to do a better job of reaching out to the community and its needs. For example, there are so many folks in my neck of the woods that have problems speaking English; there are going to be vast groups of people in the last part of the year trying to figure out how to apply for the new healthcare plans online; and would someone please answer why our local libraries do not offer or host book clubs?
If I want to join a book club I go to meetup.com or Barnes and Noble when the most obvious place it should be held is at a library.
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