Pressfield’s book on pursuing creativity is currently less than $6 in its electronic form, so I used my Christmas money and picked it up on the recommendation of a creative friend. My buddy owns a coffee shop, plays in bands, and generally pursues the finer things in life. A renaissance man! If he said this was worth a read, I figure it was worth a go. I’m glad I did. While there’s probably nothing groundbreaking in this book, the encouragement to create and be yourself […]
We are shaped and fashioned by what we love
Over the last five years, I’ve made a renewed effort at writing, something I loved as a kid but let slip in favor of more practical pursuits. [Translation: I gave up what I really wanted in favor of what others wanted for me.] Having no idea what I’m doing, I’ve read a lot of books on writing and creativity, trying to avoid specifics on writing and storytelling mechanics in favor of tips and tricks on the creative process. This book caught my eye on Amazon, […]
New Package, Same Stuff
This book is full of tidbits of creative advice, but those tidbits don’t really add up to anything new.
Do good work and share it with people.
A few pages into this book, I thought that it was really not for me. If I’m being perfectly honest, I only continued because it was a fast read and I’m several weeks behind on my Cannonball. It’s a book about creativity, and making things, and getting off your ass and actually doing it, and finding inspiration, and living a healthy life instead of just being a creative who drinks and stays up all night. I ran into some weird identity stuff here. I couldn’t […]
A Theory of Creativity, Teaching, the Universe and Everything
I’m starting a new teaching job in the fall, and I’ve been starting to work on new lesson plans and classroom strategies. Thus, when I saw a friend’s review of this book on Goodreads with a comment concerning utility in the classroom, I figured I’d try it. Although there is extensive discussion of teaching methodology, this book does not read as a pedagogical instruction manual, nor does it read like an academic study. It sounds a lot like a business/inspirational guide, in the style of […]
By Your Command: Creative on Command
I read a fair amount of so called “self-help” books; some because the subject interests me, some because they’ve been recommended to me, and some even though I know I may roll my eyes through 90% of the book and get something of worth from the other 10%. So this book was kind of a good news/bad news situation for me: the good news was that I found useful information in about half the book. The bad news is that the first half of the […]