3 Books With Neil Pasricha

So one day I'm out taking one of my magical ​life-changing long walks​ when suddenly two guys are like "Hi! How are you?!"

And I look up kind of stunned because I'm walking around downtown Toronto where no one really pops out of the woodwork to shout a "Hi! How are you?!" at you …

What do I see?

Two young men smiling back at me. Like, big smiles! Gigantic smiles. Dressed up, too. It takes me a minute to piece it together but turns out they're Mormon Missionaries living away from home for two years with the sole purpose of teaching people about their church.

They asked me what I'd heard about Mormonism and I said, uh, well, they don't drink much and they have a lot of kids. Oh, and there's a play called The Book of Mormon! Super ignorant.

I got to talking to them and my fascination with these guys deepened. They are teenagers. They go by Elder Cox and Elder Corona. They are living away from home for two years while most of their peers go to college. They get no TV, no music, no books, no booze, no bars, no dating, and no… well, no anything most teenagers would be interested in.

Do they have doubts? Do they have fears? What if no one believes in them? How successful are they?

How do they even define success?

So, we are sitting down with two teenage Mormon Missionaries to discuss their three most formative books and what it's like devoting your life to one sole mission, purpose, and faith.

I found this conversation enlightening and inspiring on many levels.

I hope you do, too.

Over the years we have taken the 3 Books podcast on the road many times ... from recording in ​Judy Blume's bookstore​ in Key West to to the ​back of Jackie's Uber​ in St. Louis to ​Jonathan Haidt's kitchen​ in New York we've gone where the stories take us. And for the first time we are going to the 55-country and 1.5 billion person continent of Africa.

I am so excited to share the first of three chapters of 3 Books recorded in Nairobi, Kenya.

I landed there and went whizzing down busy streets with colourful stalls, wandering goats, people pulling carts full of eggs, women carrying baskets on their heads, endless whizzing bodas (motorcycles).

I visited the lovely home of novelist and professor ​Peter Kimani​ — where he lives with his wife Anne and their two boys. Peter is a huge mind and talented writer whose work spans New York Times Notable novels such as '​Dance of the Jakaranda​' to writing a poem for Barack Obama's presidential inauguration. Peter has studied at the University of Iowa—the Harvard of writing schools, perhaps!—and earned his doctorate at the University of Houston. He was awarded the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, Kenya's highest literary honor, and is a professor at Aga Khan University in Nairobi.

Let's sit down outside in his backyard garden, near the mango and orange trees, below the calls of the Pied Crows, and discuss normalizing abnormalities, decolonizing our minds, The Hardy Boys, writing as an extension of living, whitewashing conservation, Peter's 3 most formative books, and much, much more...

Let's flip the page to Chapter 154 now...

Carl Honoré is the godfather of the "slow movement" — a Canadian born, UK-based author, journalist, and ​popular TED speaker​ whose first book, the 2004 long-running bestseller '​In Praise of Slowness​', sparked a global conversation about time, speed, and how we live.

What's happened since 2004? Life has gotten even faster! Which makes his ideas and insights even more valuable. I love Carl's work so much I've read 'In Praise of Slowness' three times and enjoyed his tangential books on parenting in an era of hyper pressure ('​Under Pressure​') and making the most of our longer lives ('​Bolder​').

Carl is a warm, sagacious soul who oozes kindness and wisdom and in this conversation we talk about the best way to cook risotto, why you should read Orwell to your kids even in their 20s, how social media is changing travel, the benefits of learning new languages, the meaning of the phrase "tempo giusto", mindful ways to slow down our busy lives, and, of course, his 3 most formative books...

Let's flip the page to Chapter 153 now...

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 ship where I experienced the bizarre combination of having no idea what was going on while not being able to wait for what happened next.

The book was full of talking beavers. Talking swords! Strange video games. And ever-expanding worlds with wizards, who maybe aren't really wizards, and oh—it's narrated by a microscopic AI-type chronicler, who's been in many different lives across millennia and who now sits inside our protagonist's left shoulder.

The writing was like a jacked up 'Star Wars' meets 'Cloud Atlas' by ​David Mitchell​ featuring Willy Wonka and Mad Hatter types with moments of poignancy dashed in to let us see, and see around, our endlessly twisting lives together. It is a big, loud, cymbal crash of a book so after I was done I reached out to the giant-minded author Robin Sloan to invite him on the show.

Robin Sloan is a writer, printer, and manufacturer—his new 3-word biography!—with three mind-expanding novels including '​Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore​', '​Sourdough​', and, of course, the magical '​Moonbound​'.

Robin splits his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley of California where he (wait for it) manufactures California extra virgin olive oil. He also (yes) prints wonderful zines and sends out a delightfully nerdy newsletter every 29 1/2 days via his ​website​.

Strap in as we discuss social media, AI ethics, childhood obsession, books as technology, olive oil, working with your partner, myths and identity, and, of course, the brilliant Robin Sloan's 3 most formative books…

Let's flip the page to Chapter 152 now...