My favorite thing about creativity is the way it feeds on itself. Great works of art—actually, any works of art—blast themselves into humanity, get absorbed by humanity, and then sit back and watch in amazement as humanity can’t help but create more art in response. I adore cycles like this. And while I absorb creativity and inspiration from basically everything under the sun (and moon), books are at the top of my list, and books that are actually about creativity are the supreme rulers. Here’s my top 5 non-fiction books for pumping creativity levels to the maximum.
1. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, by Mason Currey
This is a little treasure trove of bite-sized glimpses into the creative habits of over 150 artists, writers, filmmakers, and scientists, lovingly collected from various diaries and private letters. OH AND THERE ARE PHOTOS. We discover what time luminaries such as Joyce Carol Oates and Haruki Murakami wake up in the morning and how many hours they slave over their pens; who Franz Kafka liked to have lunch; the two stimulants Truman Capote considered essential to his creative process; what Andy Warhol liked to snack on. The whole book is a delightful, almost voyeuristic peek into the working lives of some of the most creative people out there. I was also greatly relieved and validated to learn that many great writers waste just as much time in the evenings as I do (not Joyce Carol Oates though… no, not her).
Upon waking in the late afternoon—typically about 3:00 or 4:00 p.m., although sometimes not until as late as 6:00—Proust first lit a batch of the opium-based Legras powders that he used to relieve his chronic asthma.
Mason Currey
2. The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, by Twyla Tharp
This is a no-nonsense self-help tome / creativity guide by the dance choreographer Twyla Tharp. Establishing a routine in which my creativity can flourish (specifically writing) has been a challenge for me since… forever, and her philosophical musings and suggested exercises are hugely inspiring! It’s a surprisingly versatile book. Her background is dance and my art form is writing, yet all forms of creativity can be applied and rejuvenated here.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won’t lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life.
Twyla Tharp
3. Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative, by Austin Kleon
This is a fast-paced, graphics-heavy book filled with little flashes of wisdom perfect for a society that has a ten-minute attention span and wants its insights in bite-sized pieces (guilty as charged)… It’s a beautifully designed book with a unique square shape and bold pages (many are black with white font), and I found it extremely satisfying to dip in and out at will, picking up ideas here and there.
WRITE THE BOOK YOU WANT TO READ.
Austin Kleon
4. Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper, by SARK
I’ve had a soft spot for SARK for nearly two decades now, since I first encountered her enchanting books as a broke student living in a gray and terrible basement suite that desperately needed some magic. SARK brought color into my life and she’s still doing it! All of her books are written in a combination of vivid inks and watercolors and reading them is the equivalent of sinking your teeth into a pink frosted cupcake topped with glittering sprinkles and stuffed with speed and your favorite psychedelics—AND THEN YOU GO OUT AND IMMEDIATELY MAKE YOUR OWN VERSION OF THE CUPCAKE. She may not be everyone’s cup of tea as her tone is playful and rather whimsical, but I don’t care, I love her anyway.
Remember to delight yourself first. Then, others can be truly delighted.
SARK
5. The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron
Pretty sure this book has saved lives. Creative lives, human lives. All the lives. It’s set up as a 12-week program. Each week consists of a mixture of considerations and sort of mini-lectures on the subject of creativity, blocks, etc. and several tasks you’re meant to go through, including the infamous “morning pages”. There was so much in this book that truly inspired me, and it’s not necessary to go through the whole thing week by week—you can pick and choose a task here, an exercise there. Amazing feeling to watch creative blocks and negative belief systems fall away.
I have come to believe that creativity is our true nature, that blocks are an unnatural thwarting of a process at once as normal and as miraculous as the blossoming of a flower at the end of a slender green stem
Julia Cameron
I’ve already gotten crazy-inspired just by writing this post. Hope you enjoy!