Reading collection
Creativity & Making
Books for building a creative practice, shipping work, and staying inspired.
- Books
- 10
- Insights
- 53
Collection index
A shelf with an argument.
Every collection gathers books around a practical life problem. Open the title that feels closest, then let the shelf widen the frame.
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01
Anne Lamott · 1994
Bird by Bird
Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.
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02
Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace · 2014
Creativity, Inc.
Original work survives when the room is brave enough to tell the truth while the idea is still fragile.
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03
Sonke Ahrens · 2017
How to Take Smart Notes
The point of notes is not to store thoughts. It is to give future thoughts somewhere intelligent to land.
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04
Austin Kleon · 2019
Keep Going
Creative momentum is not a mood; it is a place you can return to, one ordinary day at a time.
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05
Seth Godin · 2010
Linchpin
The job is not to wait for a map. The job is to make art generous enough that people would miss it if it disappeared.
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06
Stephen King · 2000
On Writing
The scariest moment is always just before you start.
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07
Adam Grant · 2016
Originals
Originality begins when the default stops looking inevitable and starts looking editable.
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08
Austin Kleon · 2012
Steal Like an Artist
Every artist is a collector with taste, a thief with ethics, and a maker who changes the evidence by hand.
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09
Twyla Tharp · 2003
The Creative Habit
Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits.
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10
Ken Robinson, Lou Aronica · 2009
The Element
The Element is the meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion.
Next rooms
Keep exploring.
11 books
ADHD & Focus
For the restless and the distracted. Books that meet you where you are.
Open →7 books
Become Hard To Manipulate
A persuasion-literacy curriculum. Read these and you'll start to see the strings: in ads, in apps, in conversations, in your own head.
Open →8 books
Better Conversations, Better Life
Most of your relationships are made of sentences. Six books on listening hard, speaking clearly, and turning conflict into connection.
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