Jul 19, 2017
Creativity reading list
7 essential books to help you maximise your creativity
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To feed my interest in creativity, I’ve been committing some serious tsundoku (積ん読), buying books and letting them pile up unread on shelves, on floors, and on tables around my flat. As I work my way through the growing stacks, I’ll share a few of my favourites. Here’s the first round.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Gilbert optimistically explores themes of courage, enchantment, permission, and persistence. Check out her popular TED Talk, too: Your elusive creative genius.
Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All
by David and Tom Kelley
If you ever tell me ‘I want to be a designer, but I’m not creative,’ I will recommend this book. Sometimes it’s mindset that holds us back from dedicating the time one needs to build skill. Brothers David and Tom Kelley of IDEO provide accessible and inspiring examples of successfully breaking through that barrier.
Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World
by Tim Harford
Within the first few pages of this book, I was pulled in by Harford’s telling of Keith Jarett and The Köln Concert. The best-selling solo album in jazz history, and the all-time best-selling piano album, nearly didn’t exist due to the accidental delivery a badly tuned piano in poor condition. This book celebrates the beauty and excellence that can emerge from our messy world.
On Creativity
by David Bohm
Bohm was a physicist and theorist. Over two decades, his writing explored the process of scientific discovery, the relationship between science and art, and perception as a creative act. This book is more academic than the others on this list, but it’s no less optimistic. It frames creativity as a subject with resonance far beyond self.
Trust the Process: An Artist’s Guide to Letting Go
by Shaun McNiff
I can’t remember how or where I found this book, but I’ve carried it with me for over ten years as I’ve moved between continents and countries. McNiff is an artist, lecturer, and art therapist. His writing is gentle and encouraging, offering examples and suggested exercises from his own work and process. Although it’s titled ‘an artist’s guide…’, it’s relevant for designers and anyone who wants to make things.
Why We Make Things and Why it Matters: The Education of a Craftsman
by Peter Korn
In his introduction, Korn asks, ‘why do we choose the spiritually, emotionally, and physically demanding work of bringing new objects into the world with creativity and skill?’ Later he suggests an answer when he writes, ‘we engage in the creative process to become more of whom we’d like to be and, just as important, to discover more of whom we might become. We may make things because we enjoy the process, but our underlying intent, inevitably, is self-transformation.’ See the final pages of the book for an excellent reading list.
Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind
by Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire
One of my favourites on this list, my copy is dog-eared and filled with sticky notes. This is a follow-up to a very popular article by Carolyn Gregoire, 18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently. In the book, the authors focus on the top 10 behaviours of highly creative people. These include daydreaming, passion, imaginative play, openness to experience, sensitivity, and others. The habits suggest creativity is as much way of life, as it is a process of invention and making.
Read more about creativity at francescaelisia.com. For tips on living a creative life, sign up for my newsletter.
