In 2008 a blog called 1000 awesome things was launched. It’s updated every weekday and it’s one of the funniest, but also most emblematic sites portraying our culture, aspirations and the quality of our lives.

It works like this: people are encouraged to submit their awesome things to do in small essays of less than 1000 words. An internal jury will select the best ones and publish them on the website. But that’s not all… until now this blog morphed into three best sellers: The Book of Awesome, The Book of Even More Awesome and The Book of Awesome Holiday.

Neil Parsicha, the mind behind the blog, in an interview explained: “I started 1000awesomethings.com on a chilly spring night in 2008 and never thought much would amount of it. But honestly, it was just dark days outside – ice caps melting, wars raging, forests burning, hurricanes swirling – and I wanted to remind myself of the simple things like bubble wrap, snow days, and the cold side of the pillow“.

From such a simple idea, Parsicha managed to get a huge reputation on the Internet and publishing three books that are being translated and read all over the world. “I’ve had preachers write to tell me they recite these awesome things in their sermons and I’ve had teachers tell me they read them to their third grade class every morning. I’ve had heavier things — suicidal teens, cancer patients — tell me that focusing on things like hitting a string of green lights in a row and the smell of bakeries has reminded them of all the small, simple things we’re lucky to live with every day. And then I’ve got people saying ‘Hey man, thanks for the smile!’, says the author.

Enjoy and submit… the countdown is running fast!