This short book has completely captured me. It was first recommended by Peter Mallouk, who said it gave him peace for weeks at a time. I grabbed the Kindle version with low expectations, devoured it in three days, and I’ve since bought 20 copies of the paperback to give out to friends [Update: 60+ copies]. It found me at the right time and won’t resonate with everyone, but it has equally impressed several of my best buddies.

You can find the specific section that I’m (re)reading here: page 1 and page 2. I was given the excerpts by a tour guide while trekking through the Negev not long ago.

Here’s the description: “Celebrating the 20th anniversary of storytelling phenomenon The Moth, 45 unforgettable true stories about risk, courage, and facing the unknown, drawn from the best ever told on their stages.” I’ve only read 50 or so pages, but one of my favorites thus far is Unusual Normality (YouTube option here if any loading issues) by Ishmael Beah (@ishmaelbeah). Reading one short (2–5-page) story over tea or coffee in the morning is a nice jumpstart to the day.

Spirited Away—as mentioned in my chat with Adam Savage—is my favorite movie of all time. This book is awe-inspiring and shows the depth of world-creation that makes Miyazaki a legend.

I’ve long been fascinated by Mary Karr (@marykarrlit), and I finally picked up her book on the craft of memoir writing after a recommendation by Michael Pollan. It applies to much of life, and I’d consider it a philosophical guide in many respects, replete with the dead serious (e.g., how to communicate past abuse) and spit-up-your-coffee funny (e.g., catshit sandwich metaphors). Highly recommended if you work with the written word in any capacity.

This book is brand-new, but I’m already on my second read. I’ve been waiting a year for it to be published! Françoise is one of the world’s foremost experts in navigating “expanded states of consciousness,” and she has ~30 years of experience combining indigenous training with modern tools. As Michael Pollan recently posted on Twitter, “Françoise Bourzat has written an authoritative book on guided psychedelic therapy with important lessons for anyone thinking of either guiding or being guided.” Ralph Metzner wrote the foreword, and endorsements on the back cover include pioneers like Gabor Maté, Ann Shulgin, James Fadiman, and Charles S. Grob, professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine.

Here is a partial description from Amazon: “Françoise Bourzat—a counselor and experienced guide with sanctioned training in the Mazatec and other indigenous traditions—and healer Kristina Hunter introduce a holistic model focusing on the threefold process of preparation, journey, and integration. Drawing from more than thirty years of experience, Bourzat’s skillful and heartfelt approach presents the therapeutic application of expanded states, without divorcing them from their traditional contexts. Consciousness Medicine delivers a coherent map for navigating non-ordinary states of consciousness, offering an invaluable contribution to the field of healing and transformation.” Highly recommended for anyone interested in this work.

So far, I’ve found this book to be very compelling and actionable. The real-world stories are heart wrenching and keep the pages turning. It’s a short read and might take 2–4 hours to finish.

I’ve previously recommended Ted’s incredible collection of short stories titled Stories of Your Life and Others. Despite the fact that Ted started off as a part-time science-fiction writer with a full-time technical writing job, he is the equivalent of Martin Scorsese or Wayne Gretzky in the sci-fi world—he has won four Hugo, four Nebula, and four Locus Awards, among others. The hit film Arrival (94% on Rotten Tomatoes), one of my favorite movies of the last 3–5 years, is based on one of Ted’s short stories. Gizmodo has written that “the arrival of a new piece of short fiction by Ted Chiang is always cause for celebration and parades and wild dancing.” Exhalation, his newest collection, may be even better than his last. It’s just so damn good.

Many of you know that Tim’s We Learn Nothing, his dazzling collection of humor and insight, is one of the few books in the Tim Ferriss Book Club. To get a taste, you can listen to one of my favorite chapters, “Lazy: A Manifesto,” in this short 20-minute episode of the podcast. I’ve been eager to revisit Tim’s work, and I’m now digging into his latest collection of essays. Tim’s fans include people like filmmaker Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow), who gave him the blurb of all blurbs: “Tim Kreider’s writing is heartbreaking, brutal and hilarious—usually at the same time. He can do in a few pages what I need several hours of screen time and tens of millions to accomplish. And he does it better. Come to think of it, I’d rather not do a blurb. I am beginning to feel bad about myself.”

The negotiation stories with Steve Jobs alone make this book worth the read. Podcast with Bob coming soon.