Reading collection
Creativity & Making
Books for building a creative practice, shipping work, and staying inspired.
- Books
- 17
- Insights
- 96
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
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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02
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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03
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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04
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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05
Stephen King · 2000
On Writing
The scariest moment is always just before you start.
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06
Adam Grant · 2016
Originals
Originality begins when the default stops looking inevitable and starts looking editable.
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07
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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08
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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09
Ken Robinson, Lou Aronica · 2009
The Element
The Element is the meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion.
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10
Rick Rubin · 2023
The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Attention becomes the studio before the work becomes visible.
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11
Anne Lamott · 1994
Bird by Bird
Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.
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12
Austin Kleon · 2014
Show Your Work!
Do not wait to be discovered; become useful in public.
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13
Jocelyn K. Glei · 2013
Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind
Explore the core idea, community insights, and practical actions from this read.
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14
Amanda Palmer · 2014
The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help
A clean ask gives another person the dignity of a real yes or no.
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15
Rosamund Stone Zander · 2000
The Art of Possibility
A new frame can make room for better music.
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16
Julia Cameron
The Artist's Way
Leap, and the net will appear.
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17
Steven Pressfield
The War of Art
Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet — and the most reliable.
Next rooms
Keep exploring.
14 books
ADHD & Focus
For the restless and the distracted. Books that meet you where you are.
Open →10 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 →18 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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