I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions (mine is 1440x900 if you have to know) but I like to reflect on the year past to see what I might want to change going forward. There aren’t many things I want to change at the moment. Just one: being intentional.

This applies to all aspects of my life whether it’s relationships, how I spend my free time or how I show up at work. I want to carve out more time for the things that actually matter to me and focus on them without distractions. A big part of this is no doubt maintaining the routines that improve my wellbeing. I noticed that there are four activities that drastically improve how I feel on a given day:

• Exercise
• Meditation
• Reading
• Playing guitar

If I do those every day, my body feels good. I feel good. I want to do a better job at prioritising and removing mindless distractions in the process. Writing about it is one thing, but now it’s about making it happen. Let’s see how it goes.

Locke Lamora is the leader of a gang of con artists and thieves called the Gentleman Bastards. They’ve all been raised since childhood to make a living by stealing from the rich thanks to a variety of techniques and disguises. Think of Ocean’s Eleven in a Renaissance fantasy setting with a sprinkle of the Godfather to keep everyone in check.

Locke is instantly likable due to his charisma and endless banter. In fact, the entire gang is well written and synergistic, with everyone having an interesting backstory in their own right. The story is split into two distinct timelines–one in the present and another in the past with a focus on the early days of each gang member.

The book starts off slowly which made me put it down for extended periods before ploughing through to the end. Once the wheels of the first heist start spinning, the momentum picks up and never stops. You’re in for a rollercoaster as Locke and his friends become part of a bigger conspiracy than they could’ve imagined but need to find a way to save the city and its people.

★★★★☆

I was at the airport with a friend when I asked them what their favourite book was. “You have to read I Am Pilgrim right now, it’s so good”, was the answer. And so I hopped on my Kindle and downloaded it in time for our upcoming flight.

Thrillers aren’t usually my type of book, but this one hits different. It is a page-turner for sure and once I started it was very hard to put down. The story reminds me of a James Bond movie where the main character is badass and very resourceful during his investigation. What I didn’t enjoy as much was the fact that he kept reminding the reader of those things throughout the book.

If you’re looking for an entertaining page-turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat and maybe keep you up all night, definitely check this one out. I can’t wait for the sequel which is supposed to be released sometime next year.

★★★★★

I grew up with video games. It’s been one of my favourite hobbies ver since my dad let me play on the Atari 7800. Soon after we got the Playstation and I was hooked. Later my mind was blown when I played online for the first time with other people on the Dreamcast.

During my teenage years and beyond I’d play almost anything from role playing games to first-person shooters. In the past couple years however I noticed a shift in my gaming habits.

I buy less games and I spend less time on them individually. I can’t even remember the last game I completed from start to finish. I mean I love Final Fantasy 7 but didn’t even make it halfway through in the remake.

Maybe my short attention span is to blame. I’d like to think I became more intentional. Even though I probably purchased hundreds of games over the years, these days it’s more about quality than quantity for me. There’s actually only three that I play regularly:

The first and most played is Magic: The Gathering Arena. I was introduced to Magic by my childhood friend ages ago and it’s been nice to get back into it digitally.

After that comes NBA 2K. I love basketball and I haven’t missed a single copy since 2005 which is kind of crazy to think about.

Last but not least is Rocksmith 2014, which has been a lot of fun to improve my guitar playing.

I only noticed recently why I’m drawn back to these titles in particular without a need for new ones.

All of the above games relate directly to an interest outside of video games. They’re essentially a digital version that allows me to experience something I already enjoy in the real world. Just in a slightly different way.

I’ve always been fascinated by the origin of humankind. How did we go from cavemen trying to figure out fire to being able to fly huge airplanes through the sky? I’m deeply interested in the many steps that led not only to our present day progress but also to our very existence in the first place. This was my first book by Bill Bryson and I went in with high expectations based on his track record.

But then I read through the first few chapters focused on the big bang and the origins of the universe and decided to take a break. I’ll admit that it didn’t meet my expectations at first because I was focused on a very specific part in the universe’s timeline. Not being one to give up and having run out of books in my backlog I gave it another chance. And I’m glad I did.

It’s such an entertaining read and Bill knows how to turn his well researched content into page-turners. I don’t think I’ll remember most (if any) names of the people mentioned but it gave me a really good overview on many topics that relate to my main interest at the moment–how humans evolved over time.

With that being said, the chapter I enjoyed the most was the obviously the one describing what little is known about our many Sapiens ancestors. This led me down a rabbit hole and I’ve found a few promising resources on the topic such as The Ascent of Man, Prehistory, Guns, Germs and Steel and Sapiens which I’m currently reading.

★★★★☆