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 get a bad rap for being too silly, too saucy, too simple.

So this summer join me in bridging the gap to find great beachy reads.

We want books that have a speedy pace *and* expand our minds!

We want books that help us escape our everyday lives *and* teach us something new.

A mesmerizing coming-of-age novel! A slim tear-jerky memoir! A crucial self-help book! An evocative life story from the deep south. And, of course, the Tom Wolfe novel I think everybody should start with…

I made this video and podcast for you:

Please enjoy my 5 summer beach books to stretch your mind like taffy while you bake in the sun…

Let's find your next read now...

BIG NEWS!

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

This podcast is me reading the whole book!

The book is about all the weird, wonderful, beautiful things that make Canada ... Canada.

Did you ever notice Canadians speak in the collective?

“What do you think of the weather we’re having?”

“Shall we grab a Tims before the meeting?”

“Think we have a shot at the playoffs?”

We, we, we.

We use the word we so much.

Why do we feel like such a collective?

I don’t think it’s complicated.

I think it’s because we are one.

We all toss around half of everything we make into a big glass jar and use it to pay for everyone’s health care, education, and services.

Sure, the system’s never perfect, but if you shatter your ankle in an icy Canadian Tire parking lot, need a dozen years of free school for five kids in Kamloops, or want to drive on freshly snowplowed roads from Comox to Cornwall to Cape Spear, well ... we got you.

We got you.

We got everyone.

So today I'm releasing the audio version of my first new book in three years.

For free!

With no ads!

It's a gift.

The Canadian way.

I'm sharing the audiobook for free on the 3 Books podcast feed and on YouTube and then on Canada Day (July 1st) I'll be publishing the full text and a beautifully formatted PDF for free download on my blog (www.neil.blog) and also selling paper books—both black and white paperbacks and full-color hardcovers—at cost, starting July 1st.

It's a different type of book than I've done before—a 78-page, bright red, self-published love letter to my home country. And it was designed by a Canadian in Ottawa (Steve St. Pierre), audio and video edited by a Canadian in Toronto (Dave Boire), and even the t-shirt I'm wearing in the YouTube video was designed and manufactured by a Canadian in Toronto (Daniel Torjman).

If you're Canadian I hope you feel pride in who we are. If you're not Canadian, I hope this helps you see Canada a little clearer. Maybe it will inspire you to visit ... or to move here!

Flip this on for your long road trip and let's let ourselves get inspired by what's possible when grit, determination, and kindness come together across culture and language. Let's reflect on shared goals of spending time with loved ones, hitting best-in-world education rates, and, of course, kicking back by the lake with a Moosehead and a bowl of ketchup chips.

This is a piece of writing close to my heart and something I have been working on for over a decade.

It began as a 1000 word blog post on '1000 Awesome Things' (2012), turned into a 5000 word Audible Original audiobook (2017), and now, today, in 2025, has become a 10,000 word physical book and audiobook that I offer here as my gift to you—and to us.

I hope you like it.

Neil

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 coast of the Pacific Ocean after birding all morning in ​Torrey Pines​. I was tracking my birds on ​eBird​—the ​Peregrine Falcons​, ​Anna's Hummingbirds​, and ​California Scrub-Jays​—and, of course, completely drained my phone's battery.

When I get to Del Mar I spy this hobbit-hole looking bookstore called ​Camino Books: For The Road Ahead​ and when I walk in I am suddenly thrust into a gorgeous Biblio Paradise. Camino Books is one of the most spectacular bookstores I've ever seen! I fall into the handwritten Staff Picks walls, nookish children's section, incredible curation, giant hand-drawn posters from Dave Eggers, and the Wonka-like atmosphere that creates a true feast for the eyes and mind!

But yeah ... my phone's dead. So I walk to the back counter and ask the gentleman unpacking boxes if I could plug it in back there. When I tell him I'm Canadian he gives me a quirky grin and says, "How many tariffs should I put on your free charge?" We laugh and start talking about the political scene. John has the aura of ​George Saunders​—a certain "warm gnarliness"—and he tells me, "We have no left wing in this country. We're like an eagle slowly swirling to the ground with just one right wing." And I could immediately tell this poetic bookselling Jedi master needed to be recorded...

What emerges are the poetic distillations of 67-year-old John the Bookseller, along with his wife Alison who cameos at the end. They have been booksellers since 1981 ... a combined 88 years! No wonder the store's so great. They began in Berkeley and then opened up an independent bookstore chain called Diesel Books, up and down the California coast, and now have sold the store to open up a little new shop on the coast called Camino Books: For the Road Ahead.

Don't we all need a good book for the road ahead?

Let's talk about how to open a bookstore, California independence, fighting fascism, George Orwell, the 51st state, customers vs. readers, Susan Cain, the Spanish Civil War, how to 'stay awake,' and, of course, John and Alison's 3 most formative books.

This is the kind of mind-opening conversation that great bookstores create.

Let's head down to Del Mar, California as we flip the page to Chapter 149 now...