I was a bad baby.
From the time I was zero minutes old I was wide-eyed, wide-awake, crying and cranky. Bedtime meant nothing and my parents say I’d often stand in my crib staring around the room rattling the bars all night.
Sleeplessness stuck as the years rolled on and I’d lie in the dark quiet house staring at the ceiling with my eyes bugged open for hours. Eventually I discovered books and started squinting through thick Coke-bottle glasses — lips softly moving, fingers slowly dragging — getting pulled into new worlds and new lives. Dim lights cast dark shadows by my dresser as I followed Frank and Joe to Pirate’s Cove or cracked cases with Encyclopedia Brown.
When I went to high school I tried to sleep in, I practiced even, but it just wouldn’t take. And since nobody was crazy enough to date me, I spent most of my evenings nose deep in musty yellow paperbacks tattered from the library, creasy finger-dents in the backs, big cracks in the spine.
These days my fingers can still feel the crinkly color-faded pages of garage sale Archie comics. I can still smell the musty kid’s section of the dim library basement. My brain still reels with flashbulb-popping memories of flipping pages with mom before bed.
I think I’ve loved books since I was a crib-rattling baby. I love squeezing them in suitcase pockets, leaving them teetering on toilets, and curling up with them under blankets on wet rainy days.
Today is the anniversary of The Book of Awesome hitting shelves around the United States and Canada. Today it’s shipping over a million copies, been a New York Times bestseller, and was a #1 International Bestseller for two straight years.
I feel so tremendously lucky and honored that this chance to chat with y’all about awesome things rose out of such difficult times in my personal life. Your comments, suggestions, and support means so much to me and I sincerely hope you have liked or will like the book.
And maybe this one’s for yourself, maybe it’s a gift for Grandma, or maybe it’s for a little kid with thick glasses to read under the covers tonight.
AWESOME!
What’s your favorite memory of The Book of Awesome? Leaving comments open for fun today!
I just love how each of your little slices of life evokes so many great feelings and memories. Today’s heading got my attention, as I’m working on making a major dream come true. So congrats on yours and cross your fingers for me!
I love opening my e-mails and finding your awesome moments every morning. Sometimes it’s the only thing I open right away. Today’s was great and reminded me that in hard times, hope and a sense of wonder can be kept alive. Thank you!
We all have wonderful reasons to be here on earth. You give us a tiny taste each day of these reasons. And you have channeled your energies into a gift to us of what great lives we really have. Each and every day! YOU Sir are AWESOME. Thank you for being a part of our lives daily and making us go out into the world yet again today with a good reason to be alive. That truly is AWESOME. Thank you so much for your hard work.
A very exciting read with various quite excellent areas brought up.
I most certainly will come back when time permits! ;)
if dreams ever do come true it would be a nightmare
I remember opening the package and finding the book inside and being excited to put my Awesome stickers inside! Right now I’m remembering very fondly that last evening when midnight rolled around and fans from everywhere huddled ’round their monitors to wait for the #1 of Awesome…what FUN!
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Cheers!
The best memory is the first one. I was with with my kids in a museum gift shop. They were going through every shelf trying to find just the right thing. I got bored and wandered to the book section to occupy myself until they were done spending all their hard-earned cash. I found this book and started reading. After a few minutes, my book-o-phile son came over and started reading over my shoulder. Soon enough we were giggling together about bubble wrap, q-tips, etc….
Sharing a giggle with my 13 year old son, who doesn’t like to talk to his mom (because she talks too much:)) …….. Awesome.
We had to buy the book.