Books that inspire creativity
When it comes to books, I love cookbooks above all else. But books surrounding my creative journey come in a close second place. By far the shelves in the Oodlearium have more photography books than anything else, but in this post, I want to explore the other books. I’ll share my favorite photography books in another post.
I snagged this book back in December and have just started to explore it. So far it has been a fun reminder that daily creative practice does not have to be complicated. I don’t have to share what I do with anyone. I can just do the exercises and get a dose of creative time. Sometimes it’s more and other times it’s less.
A friend from the Chatterbox Creatives told me about this book. It is a guided poetry writing book that helps people to explore healing and trauma through poetry. While I have not experienced the trauma that the writer has, I find the book inspirational and gives me an opportunity to play with words.
This book provides exactly what the title suggests— 100 challenges to help you get the most out of life. Each spread has a proposed thirty day challenge and then a calendar for you to track your progress. The challenges range from drinking half your body weight in water to writing a thank you card every day to a daily yoga practice and much more. What I love about this book is that it encourages all of the habits that I describe in my post about a creative mindset. If you are like me and like streaks, then this is the book for you! Get as creative as you like with how you keep track of your accomplishments.
I will never forget the day I was introduced to mindful doodling. There is no way that my friend would have any idea what a profound impact her suggestion made on my life. This book is a great encyclopedia of patterns and projects to use them on. I frequently return back to this book when I need an idea for a project. If you want to explore mindful doodling for the first time, this book is also a great starting point.
The subtitle for this book is An unhurried adventure in creative mindfulness. This is a book that is supposed to be used, deconstructed, written in, torn apart. I don’t usually dive into these types of books because I was raised to not destroy a book. This is not destroying a book, but rather using it in so many creative ways. My favorite parts are: 1) beautiful moment cards (remove cards from the book and write down beautiful moments). 2) Let’s stick together- an awesome collection of drawings on stickers that I am using in my inspiration journal to curate inspirational quotes from women I admire. 3) Cutting and pasting— a whole section devoted to collage with all sorts of things to cut and paste. There is SO much more. It’s bursting with ways to tap into your creative energy.
This book falls into the category of book that profoundly changed my life. I wrote an entire blog post about the impact this book made on my creativity. Check it out here. The concept of the book is very simple— you are given the start of a drawing and the goal is for you to complete the drawing. However, as someone who does NOT draw, I decided that I would NOT complete any of the drawings as they were intended to be drawn. I turned a high heeled shoe into a giant fish for example. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book.
I survived my teen years by writing terrible angst filled poetry. After a college professor single handedly killed my love of writing, I did not even consider writing another poem until my cousin bought me this book for Christmas a few years ago. Even then I was very full of anxiety. The book provides a prompt for a theme and then gives you a list of words to include in the poem. If you are looking for something to push your creativity buttons, this is a great start. You don’t have to share your wordsmithing with anyone after all. I eventually wrote a poem as a gift for a close friend. Will have to wait to share that post as I haven’t given her the gift yet.
This book tells the story of three friends who get together regularly to explore their creativity. They talk about everything from creating a city together out of cardboard to designing patterns and even an original alphabet/font. I love this book because it was the inspiration for figuring out how to get a group of creatives together. The “prompts/assignments” are fun and definitely can serve as a starting point for further explorations.
The Non-Designer’s Design Book
I love making photo books almost as much as I love taking photos. This book has been super helpful for learning the basics of design. It goes over everything from fonts to colors and also gives projects to help practice what you have learned.
What are your favorite books that inspire your creativity? Please share in the comments!
