I felt trapped early in the pandemic. I normally walk every day in downtown Toronto. I write on park benches and in distant coffee shops and love popping into bookstores and bumping into friends. I am very privileged in that I get to travel one or two days a week, too. But then: the pandemic. It hit hard and I was suddenly sitting in a makeshift office upstairs. Staring at four blank walls and peering out a glass door into the trees and electrical wires outside. And then I saw it. A bird! A bird I'd never seen before! It was ... a robin? No. Way bigger than a robin? And the chest was red but ... the rest looked different. Some white. Was it a woodpecker? I ran downstairs, got some binoculars, and then downloaded the Merlin ID app a friend had told me about. Within a couple of minutes more of looking and using the app: I had it! It was a Rose Breasted Grosbeak. Later that day my wife and I put together a (desperately needed) trampoline in the backyard ... and the bird didn't fly away. The next day I noticed there were three of them. Maybe four. My kids started jumping underneath them. It seemed like everyone was smiling at each other. It was a strange bit of connection in that suddenly-so-disconnected time. I felt less ... speciesist? Just more aware of all life. All energy. It helped me zoom out from my mind chewing on problems and worries. I got hooked on birdwatching. I became... a birdwatcher. I am, today, as I stand here beside you, a birder. Yes, hearing them counts. For me, I got hit by the birding bug in 2020. It really has changed my life. Now when I touch down in a new city, time zone, or airport... I go birding. I reconnect with the natural world. I practice shinrin-yoku and really feel my cortisol and adrenaline lowering. Basically: I recombobulate. And I have made wonderful friends birding through the eBird app -- shoutout to Tommy in Phoenix, JC in Jacksonville, Dave in Vegas, and Alannah in Newfoundland! -- and have found birding a wonderful source of conversation, beauty, exercise, nature, perspective, inspiration, and community. I even wear the big hat and khakis now and get a kink in my neck in the Spring. As I write this (March 20th, 2023) my life list is 401 after my first Snow Buntings and Wild Turkeys last week. I even snuck a couple of birding entries into OUR BOOK OF AWESOME, which as of now has spent 12 weeks on the international non-fiction bestseller list thanks to you! (Thank you so much and, if you don't have a copy, get one here. It was a pleasure to be interviewed by Jody Allair of Birds Canada on the wonderful Birds Canada podcast "The Warblers." late in 2022. Birds Canada is a non-profit run by extremely passionate people with the mission of driving understanding, appreciation, and conservation of birds in Canada. Leslie and I donate to Birds Canada and, if you're interested, you can donate here. Thank you sincerely to Patrick Nadeau, Jody Allair, Andrea Gress, Kate Dalgleish, Kris Cu, José Mora, Alex Nicole, and the entire Birds Canada team.   You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/birding-with-birds-canada Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future chapter: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.   Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list  3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, Angie Thomas, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and every single full moon all the way up to 5:21 am on September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

Happy new moon!    Today I’m sharing a recent conversation I had with veteran journalist Matt Galloway for his show The Current.   Hope you enjoy! 

Can you believe it?   We started 3 Books back on March 31, 2018 with the goal of counting down the 1000 most formative books in the world. We said we would hang out on the exact minute of every single new moon and every single full moon for nearly 15 straight years until we collected all 1000 of them. We set the intention of making this show an ‘intrinsically-motivated journey’ and pledged to doing it with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. To help guide ourselves we started collecting Values like no book shame, no book guilt, quit more to read more, and the books are the hero.   For the nearly five years we’ve been hanging out I have to say this journey has felt like a warm ray of sun in my life. I hope it’s felt the same for you. My goal with this annual “Best Of” is simply to roll back through the year together and pick out moments that made us pause, ponder, and savor.   Thank you for being a 3 Booker and spending time with this incredible community of book lovers spread across the world. If you’re reading this, I love you more than lots.   Let’s stop to reflect and then keep enjoying the ride.   You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/best-of-2022   Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future chapter: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.     Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list    3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, Angie Thomas, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and every single full moon all the way up to 5:21 am on September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

My new book Our Book of Awesome comes out today!   Grab a copy at www.ourbookofawesome.com

Happy Equinox!   Today the sun is directly above the equator so no matter where you are the day and the night are around equal length.   Two equinoxes and two solstices give us four pause points between our regular scheduled lunar programming to drop a little bookmark in the midst of our epic journey about formative books.   Today I want share the two-minute morning practice I use to begin my day.   So: A number of years ago I was going through a tough time and found that I needed a way to ground myself and center myself, as well as my thoughts, in the morning. I was waking up without focus, with a lot of anxiety, and wasn’t in a very positive mindset. So I started this practice and then made a YouTube video about it -- which is this entire bookmark. That little practice and video turned into a number of national TV spots and a cover story in Harvard Business Review and a number of other videos that the algorithms loved more than mine and now it's turned into a journal that has sold a few hundred thousands copies. This is a dead simple practice that's had a profound effect on my life. I realized I hadn't formally shared it here so I bring it for you now.   Here is the two-minute morning practice I use for having a great day.

Can you believe it?   We started 3 Books back on March 31, 2018 with the goal of counting down the 1000 most formative books in the world. We said we would hang out on the exact minute of every single new moon and every single full moon for nearly 15 straight years until we collected all 1000 of them. We set the intention of making this show an ‘intrinsically-motivated journey’ and pledged to doing it with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. To help guide ourselves we started collecting Values like no book shame, no book guilt, quit more to read more, and the books are the hero.   For the nearly four years we’ve been hanging out I have to say this journey has felt like a warm ray of sun in my life. I hope it’s felt the same for you. My goal with this annual “Best Of” is simply to roll back through the year together and pick out moments that made us pause, ponder, and savor.   Thank you for being a 3 Booker and spending time with this incredible community of book lovers spread across the world. If you’re reading this, I love you more than lots.   Let’s stop to reflect and then keep enjoying the ride.   You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/best-of-2021    Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future chapter: 1-833-READ-A-LOT.   Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list    3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover and discuss the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter discusses the 3 most formative books of one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, Angie Thomas, Cheryl Strayed, Rich Roll, Soyoung the Variety Store Owner, Derek the Hype Man, Kevin the Bookseller, Vishwas the Uber Driver, Roxane Gay, David Mitchell, Vivek Murthy, Mark Manson, Seth Godin, Judy Blume and Quentin Tarantino. 3 Books is published on the lunar calendar with each of the 333 chapters dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and every single full moon all the way up to 5:21 am on September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and is 100% non-profit with no ads, no sponsors, no commercials, and no interruptions. 3 Books has 3 clubs including the End of the Podcast Club, the Cover to Cover Club, and the Secret Club, which operates entirely through the mail and is only accessible by calling 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Each chapter is hosted by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome, The Happiness Equation, Two-Minute Mornings, etc. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, the founder of the world's largest feminist magazine, the world's greatest Uber driver, Pete Holmes, Angie Thomas, and Malcolm Gladwell. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every single new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show and 100% ad-free, commercial-free, sponsor-free, and interruption-free. For more info check out: https://www.3books.co Chapter Description: Happy winter solstice! Happy summer solstice! If you’re in the northern hemisphere, we are tilted farther away from the sun today compared to any other day of the year. The darkest of dark days! But if you’re in the southern hemisphere, you are officially tilted closer to the sun than any other day of the year. The brightest of bright days! Do you feel a bit tilted right now? I know I do. It has been a wild year from almost any perspective. And the tiltiest of days seemed like the perfect time to drop our third annual “Best Of” special episode of 3 Books. I went back and listened to every conversation we had this year and picked out highlights I thought would provoke, stimulate, and challenge us. We sat down with so many inspiring people including Rich Roll, Dr. Laura Markham, Wagner Moura, Roxane Gay, Dr. Andrea Sereda, Derek Forgie, Temple Grandin, David Mitchell, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and many, many more… I hope this patchwork quilt conversation serves to both help us reflect on the year that was and help us set intentions for the year that will be. We have been through a lot. Grab a blanket and a cup of tea, settle in for a long drive, strap on some boots and let’s enjoy some time together now… I really love having this conversation with you. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/best-of-2020  Leave us a voicemail. Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT. Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list 

Listen in for a hint of what's to come with five-time NYT Bestselling Author Neil Pasricha's brand new podcast: 3 Books With Neil Pasricha. Click here to visit the http://3books.co/ website. Click here to Subscribe to the new podcast in iTunes. Click here to Subscribe to the new podcast in Stitcher.