Chapter: 153: Carl Honoré imparts illuminating insights into intentional idleness

The pace of living is accelerating.
I often feel like things are happening too quickly to process ... the reels are going too fast, the scrolls...

Chapter 27: Robin the Bartender on fiddling with frankincense and fighting for freedom

Chapter 152: Robin Sloan weaves wonder and weirdness into the warbly world of words

Last year I picked up a book called ‘​Moonbound​’ by Robin Sloan and it blew me away.
Reading it was like riding some rainbow-speckled rocket s...

Chapter 30: Jerry Howarth on branding, bereavement, and Blue Jays baseball

My friend Drew Dudley once told me that, other than his parents, he hadn’t heard anyone speak to him more in his life than Jerry Howarth…
The v...

Chapter 151: The Holderness Family conquers content creation by corralling chaos

What do Xmas Jammies, ADHD, and The Amazing Race have in common?
 
The Holderness Family!
 
Penn and Kim Holderness have creat...

Chapter 4: Sarah Ramsey on beating book blame with brilliant bookselling

A few years ago, I settled into the children's section of Book City in the heart of Toronto's beautiful Bloor West Village for the first chapter of 3...

Chapter 150: Prime Minister Jean Chrétien lays down lifelong lessons on leadership, liberalism, and longevity

5 Beach Books to Stretch Your Mind

Long before I oriented my life around reading, I would get the majority of my (4-5!) books per year read during the summer.
But summer reads ge...

My New Book! 'Canada is Awesome' | Full Audiobook

BIG NEWS!

I just finished writing CANADA IS AWESOME: A Little Book About A Big Country.

This podcast is me reading the w...

Chapter 149: John and Alison on fascism-fighting fiction fomenting freedom and fraternity

It started with a modern plea for help:
"Can I charge my dead phone in your bookstore?"
I was in Del Mar, California, walking up the coa...

Chapter 29: Michael Harris on queer questions and the quest for quiet

Loneliness rates have doubled since the 1980s and Vivek Murthy, former US Surgeon General, says loneliness will be the next major epidemic. So if lone...

Chapter 148: Ginny Yurich obviates obsolete offspring with 1000 hours outside

Ginny Yurich (​@1000hoursoutside​) drove 5 hours up the road from Michigan to Toronto to hang out with Leslie and me. We went for a walk outside (of c...

Chapter 28: Mark Manson on constant cursing and clearing clutter

Have you heard of a book called '​The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck​'?
I’m guessing you have since it’s sold, uh, 16 million copies since it...

Chapter 147: Nickisha the Dog Walker on dangerous drivers and dog doo diligence

Chapter 26: Angie Thomas on righting racist wrongs and remembering radicals

No one does it like Angie.
Racial tensions, police shootings, citizen uprisings. Does this sound like the setting of a YA novel? How about thre...

Chapter 146: Emily Nagoski on exuberant erotic exploration

Is porn good sex education? Why does body autonomy matter for kids? Does talking about sex kill the mood?
Emily Nagoski has the answers!
...

Chapter 25: James Frey on drunk, defiant differentiation

What do you know about James Frey?
Or what do you think you know about James Frey?
I’m guessing it’s not nothing. Everyone has an opinio...

Chapter 145: Lindyman leverages long-lasting lessons on living a limitless life

Don't use mouthwash.   Why?   It's not Lindy.   At least that's what Paul Skallas, a Chicago-born technology lawyer who goes by Lindyman online, says....

Chapter 22: Tim Urban on shivering in shorts and shifting from sheep to chef

We live in interesting times.    And they're getting interestinger!   I keep my eyes open for big thinkers to help guide and inform me as I keep tryin...

Chapter 144: Nick Sweetman on breaking boundaries with brilliant birds

​Nick Sweetman​ is one of Toronto's most prominent graffiti artists.
Last February I was walking down Lansdowne Avenue in Toronto with my frie...

Chapter 18: David Sedaris on holding happiness hostage and healing holes in our hearts

Who else loves David Sedaris?
I discovered him in 1997 when an old mentor/editor at Golden Words, my college humor papers, suggested I pick up h...

Best Of 2024: Neil Pasricha plucks pithy pointers to prime ponderings

Happy Solstice!   As we do every December solstice it's time for our 7th Annual "Best Of" episode of 3 Books.   3 Books is our 22-year-long conversati...

Chapter 143: Chris Smalls on anti-Amazon activism and abolishing aristocracy

Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world with over a million employees in the U.S. alone. A monolith responsible for trillions of dollars o...

Chapter 15: Mitch Albom on making music, managing mojo, and memorializing Morrie

Mitch is the author of '​Tuesdays with Morrie​,' the bestselling memoir of all time, as well as '​The Five People You Meet in Heaven​' and his latest...

Chapter 142: Oliver Burkeman relishes reflection and reveals writing rituals

Are you ready for a writing masterclass from one of the best self-help writers in the world?   After graduating from Cambridge, Oliver Burkeman wrote...

Chapter 7: Vishwas the Uber driver on setting standards and secrets of stellar service

Let's jump into the backseat of Vishwas Aggrawal's Uber and take a trip you won't forget.

This is a story about setting your own standa...

Chapter 141: James Daunt on bespoke bookselling building Barnes and bonds

James Daunt grew up in England the child of a diplomat—moving countries, tasting cultures, living a life with books and history at its core. He lived...

Chapter 6: Judy Blume on bouncing balls, biting breasts, and building bookstores

Did you grow up with Judy Blume?  
My mom says I “found my voice” reading 'Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing' to my sister in the bathtub when I...

Bookmark: The 2-minute happiness practice to wind down your day with intention

“Happiness is a choice.”  
Heard that saying before? Betting you have. We all have! It’s almost cliché. And yes, while research shows that a...

Chapter 140: Amy Einhorn on powerful pages and publishing possibilities

‘The Help’ by Kathryn Stockett. ‘Big Little Lies’ by Liane Moriarty. ‘Let's Pretend This Never Happened’ by Jenny Lawson. ‘American Dirt’ by Jeanine C...

Chapter 3: Seth Godin on shifting stories and stretching ourselves

Happy new moon, everybody!
I am going to release a few of my favorite classic chapters of 3 Books. Let's start with Seth Godin!
I flew d...

Chapter 139: Lewis Mallard valorizes visionary vandalism

I was at a coffee shop on College Street when the barista Tony yelled “Hey! There’s that duck!”     I turned and, sure enough, out the front window wa...

Chapter 138: Maria Popova mines meaning in marginalia

Maria Popova was born in communist Bulgaria and emigrated to the U.S. six days after her 19th birthday back in 2003. She studied at the University of...

Chapter 137: Jonathan Franzen finds fellow freaks and forges fantastic fiction

  I remember getting the knife.     It was near Christmas about 10 years ago and Leslie and I were zipping up a tiny suitcase before a beach trip with...

Chapter 136: 3 St. Louis Uber drivers on bullets, bruises, and babies

I just got back from St. Louis.
 
It was my first time there and I met a wonderfully rich collection of people who I’m so excited to intro...

Chapter 135: Cal Newport severs cell subservience to steep slow success

Cal Newport is a guide, a visionary, a role model to me and millions of others on living an intentional and productive life amidst our noisy, scatterb...

Chapter 134: Susan Orlean on lusty ledes and literary lessons for life

I got an email from longtime 3 Booker Bo Boswell who told me he found an enticingly-titled thread on reddit called “What’s your field or study (hobbyi...

Chapter 133: Celine Song stitches sumptuous stories from Seoul to soul

It’s Oscar season!
 
I was so thrilled to see ‘Past Lives’, the astounding slow-moving-yet-somehow-fast-paced debut film from Celine Song...

Chapter 132: Robin Dunbar on nullifying negativity with numbered natural networks

Back in Chapter 101 of ‘3 Books’ we had a magical, eve-of-‘Everything-Everywhere-All-At-Once’-coming-out moment-in-time conversation with creative sup...

Chapter 131: J. Drew Lanham on breaking boundaries to become better birdwatchers

 
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