Tuesday 2 July 2013

Creative Life Series: My Favourite Books on Creativity

As we start to near the end of my Creative Life series, I'd like to bring your attention to one of the main pillars of my own creative soul - books. You all know how much I love books, and I really love books about creativity. I've racked up quite a reading list over the past few years, and here are some titles that I return to over and over. It's so comforting to think that if you have any of these to hand, you need never be without inspiration or your creative mojo ever again!



I love Keri Smith. I bought this book, Living Out Loud: Activities to Fuel a Creative Life in 2007, and it changed my whole perception on how grown ups create and view the world. I realised I had lost that unique magical perspective kids take on life, and I was inspired to start embracing creativity through play once again. This book contains all sorts of fun activities (and stickers. STICKERS!) and I must have come back to it dozens of times in the last six years. 

Speaking of which...



If you're nervous about being free and messy in your creativity, I wholly recommend you get yourself one of these. Keri Smith is a genius. Fact. 

Next up, a more refined, disciplined approach to creativity. Twyla Tharp is a professional dancer and choreographer, and I must admit that her book The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it For Life took me a little perseverance to get into at first, and I ended up listening to the audiobook as well. Once I did, I was hooked, and really found myself identifying with Twyla's way of thinking. This really is a book about habits, which of course can be hard to form, but if you want to make creativity an everyday habit in your life and work, this book is really worth investing your attention. 



One of the bastions of the world of books on creativity is Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity; a book I've mentioned a few times on this blog. Don't be put off by the quasi-religious undertones, Cameron makes it clear that spiritual leanings are not necessary to getting the most out of this course-in-a-book. The way I practise creativity is based heavily on what I garnered from this book. From the concept of morning pages to the idea of the artist's date, if you want to become more creative you really can't fail with this one. I've even backed my copy to stop it wearing out with use. 



Time for a fun one. Jurgen Wolff is a rather clever thinker, and here he's come up with one of those 'dip into any page for instant inspiration' books. A lot of ideas in these sorts of books can be a little samey, especially if you read lots of them like I do, but this one genuinely contains lots of fresh notions, and it acts as an excellent confidence booster too. It also introduced me to this



So those are my staples. Now for a couple currently on my Kindle:


Image source


I'll report back when I've finished them both! Do you have any recommended books on the subject of being creative? I'd love to hear them!




17 comments:

  1. Wow, what an awesome collection of books! I've never read any of these but will definitely look out for them. I've got lots of books containing a whole host of projects but not enough (maybe none?!) on creativity as a topic in its own right. Great post, Anna!
    Jo :-)

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    1. It's such an interesting subject, how others value and harness creativity. Enjoy exploring the subject! x

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  2. thanks for all the books!ill have to check them out! if there are any creative types who are also mothers reading this, i just finished a book by aussie writer rachel power called 'the divided heart' all about the joys, tensions, beauty and frustrations of being both an artist and mum!really inspiring and insightful....

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    1. That sounds really interesting, thanks Mezz. Although not a parent myself I'm really interested in children and creativity, so that's one for my own list. Thank you. x

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  3. These all look amazing, I definitely need more creative books in my life for when inspiration vanishes and I feel like a fraud! I've just looked up the "Wreck this Journal" and I think I'll be ordering one of those in the next few hours... I always feel bad when books get wrecked, so having one which insists I do it is perfect!
    Laura x

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    1. It's really handy to have an instant library of creativity! I struggled with wrecking books to so being given permission is a bonus. x

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  4. Living Out Loud looks like exactly what I need . . . thank you Anna for your thoughts on this, I think we all need some prompting at times to nurture our creativity!

    Jem xXx

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    1. It's such a fun book, the activities are full of pure joy. x

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  5. What a great post! I keep looking at these kinds of books on Amazon, and wondering whether they'd be any good. So this post was really useful - and perfectly timed! Off to get me some holiday reads.....
    Carly
    x

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    1. I always find Amazon reviews make or break whether I go ahead and buy a book. Enjoy holiday book shopping! x

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  6. I never knew such books existed! I'm all for getting messy when being creative, you should see me now....I'm in a nest of yarn, it's everywhere! :) x

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  7. I love finding out about new books. Thanks for this list. I have a few of Keri Smith's books. I am currently completing Finish This Book by her. It is really fun.

    Nikki x

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  8. Great post Anna!
    I'm currently looking for books to read about creativity/crafting for my dissertation research, I was just wondering if you would recommend any of those books in that context? I was thinking The Creative Habit, The Artists Way and the Unleashing the Forces Within sound quite promising!? Xx

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    1. I'd recommend all three of those in that context, I know someone researching a similar topic for an MA dissertation at the moment and he's looking into all three of those titles. Check out Ken Robinson's book and TED talks as well. Let me know if there's anthing else I can help with! x

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