Welcome to this week’s Weekend Reading! Here are a handful of things I think are worth sharing.
I love this quote from Mark Twain, especially now at week seven of the pandemic:
“History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.” –Mark Twain
On Facebook, a friend asked for everyone’s favorite books of 2019. I read more books in 2019 than I have in years, and these were my top picks:
- Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
- The Plant Paradox by Dr. Steven Gundry
- Live Your Truth by Kamal Ravikant
- The Manual: A Philosopher’s Guide to Life (Epictetus) by Sam Torode
- Super Attractor by Gabrielle Bernstein
Speaking of books, this blog post from Tim Ferriss was intriguing. In it, he references Peter Drucker’s suggestion to look for single decisions that eliminate hundreds or thousands of other decisions. In my own life, I’ve made a few of those decisions (see 1, 2, and 3 in this post), and I’m always looking for more.
I switched to Brave for my web browser, and really dig it. I was tired of the countless ads that followed me from site to site to site, the strain on my CPU when I had a few tabs open (pretty much always), and having my privacy compromised.
Next, I’m going to check out Duck Duck Go search engine. Also, here’s an awesome checklist of ways to protect yourself and your information online.
Exit the warrior…
It’s been so long since I’ve written a blog post that I haven’t expressed how sad I was when I learned that Neil Peart, my all-time favorite drummer and lyricist (from Rush, my favorite band) passed away in January after a battle with brain cancer.
My love of Rush, and particularly Neil’s lyrics, has spanned four decades. My brother was a drummer in a band, and I grew up listening to them play Rush songs down in our basement. Years later, my son Brendan started drumming and became obsessed with Neil Peart, and I smiled ear-to-ear hearing him play Rush songs too.
I saw Rush in concert many times, beginning with the Hold Your Fire tour in 1987 when I was a freshman at Providence College. In 2013, my husband and I were fortunate enough to take Brendan to the Clockwork Angels tour when he was only 6, and we took all three of our kids to Rush’s final R40 tour in 2015.
I am forever grateful that Rush was such a big part of my life, and I will always cherish my memories of them. Thank you for sharing your gifts with the world, Neil. Rest in peace.
[Photo by Adrien Delforge on Unsplash]