Read all about it!

“Year of Living Sober makes news around the world. Dipsomaniac writer quoted in national and international media. Personal goal to go a year without one alcoholic drink causing a stir with Alcoholics and Teetotallers alike.”

Or something like that.

But yes, it’s true. Yesterday, your’s truly was quoted in an article for the Sydney Morning Herald. And afterwards, for a good few hours, ‘Cheers for the abstinence advice, but it’s not working’, the article I was quoted in, was the most read and commented on at the SMH website. By far. It seems like trying new ways to moderate our alcohol intake is a hot issue.

Cool.

The entertaining and well researched article by Gary Nunn (@GaryNunn1 on Twitter, a fellow booze lover, but one who banned himself from wine two years ago and now only drinks spirits) was also syndicated to most of the major newspapers in Australia including The Age, The Brisbane Times, WA Today and The Canberra Times. Not surprisingly, after the mention of this blog in that article things went a bit ballistic here too.

Readership of Year of Living Sober has been growing steadily anyway but with the extra coverage from SMH we received more visits yesterday than any single day previous.

Cool, cool.

I was pretty happy thinking lots more people would discover what an hilarious (and grammatically aware) writer I am and how taking a break from booze for a year isn’t as crazy as it might sound. Or is crazy. Whatever—hopefully it’s occasionally entertaining.

Then, as I watched my new visitor stats soar on the old WordPress blog counter I also discovered via my referred links list YOLS had been linked to by a USA website citing Year of Living Sober as one of ‘20 exceptional alcohol addiction resources‘.

What? Me? YOLS?

On the same day YOLS was referenced in the Ozzie papers it was also featured on a website which in turn has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today? How about that?

Cool, cool, cool.

While I’d like to play it cool and say I could care less if the mainstream media pick up the story about my year of living sober—and that it is a personal mission I’ve decided to share with anyone who’s interested in an alternative approach to managing alcohol, and one which doesn’t seek, or need, approval from external sources—that would be disingenuous. And the one thing above all others which I try and do here at YOLS is tell it like it is.

And so I will: I was rapt with the extra coverage.

Now, I don’t only have a wonderfully loyal readership (who got on board when this boat was just sailing) I’ve also had an opportunity to share some of the 104 posts I’ve made since Day 1 of 365 sober with people around the world.

So I guess there’s really only one more thing to say about all that: thank you. Thanks to Gary Nunn and the Sydney Morning Herald for mentioning Year of Living Sober (and my Twitter handle, @YearOffBooze); thanks to kwikmed.org for including Year of Living Sober in your list, and thank YOU for reading this far.

I love writing this blog and I love that more people are discovering it every day.

Cheers!

My name is Ben and I’m a dipsomaniac.

Today is Day 259 of my year of living sober.

☆

Little Booze Joke

An agony aunt journalist walks into a bar and asks the barman for a beer and the barman says “What? No whine for you today?”

P.S. If you’re new to Year of Living Sober you might like to start with ‘Top 40 Popular Posts So Far‘ which is, as you might expect, a list of the forty most popular posts so far.