On the last day of every month, I post a list of happiness-related recommended reading.
A reader asked for a list on the subject of creativity, so here it is.
A note about this list: I find people’s descriptions of their own creative processes more useful than books that suggest creativity exercises, so that’s the kind of book that dominates on my list.
Each one of these books is fascinating and will be enjoyed by anyone, whether or not they’re interested specifically in creativity – except the Boice and the Baty books on writing, which really do focus on the process of writing.
Books about creativity:
Bob Dylan, Chronicles
Edward Weston, The Flame of Recognition
Twyla Tharp, The Summing Up
Anthony Trollope, An Autobiography
Robert Boice, How Writers Journey to Comfort and Fluency — although (ironically) badly written, everyone I know who has read this thinks it’s a fantastic book for helping writers get writing done — but it’s bizarrely expensive, so be sure to check the price before you buy!
Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics
Chris Baty, No Plot, No Problem
Christopher Alexander et al, A Pattern Language
Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary
If you’re interested in other lists of happiness-related recommended reading, check out this blog’s right column, near the bottom, under “Happiness Library.”
