Ever wonder where I draw my creative inspiration?

Why books of course!

As someone who speaks a lot about helping people find their inner creativity, I’ve often been asked about the things that I use to draw my inspiration from.

While I could easily answer this question in hundreds of different ways, today I am going to focus on a few of the books that have had a positive impact on my creative life.

Some of these books I’ve only read once, and others I’ve returned to again and again as a resource I can use to revisit important lessons they’ve taught me.

If you’ve ever found yourself needing a creative push, or just want to read something that will help shift your mindset, here is a short list of my top recommendations:

The Artist’s Way. 

I read this book for the first time when I was in my 20s and it's where I got the idea for “morning pages.” It is one of the most well known books about finding your creativity and the author—Julia Cameron— set’s the book up as a 12 week creative course designed to help the reader find their artistic inspiration.

Cameron makes you go on artist dates with yourself and suggests things to do to help you find inspiration from within yourself and the world around you.

I love this book because it’s filled with direction, it’s easy to follow, and it helps get readers on a good creative track by jumpstarting their ability to create through concrete assignments. 

Steal Like an Artist

Sharing a message that creativity is for everyone, Austin Kleon shares ten principles to boost your creativity. Kleon teaches that one should study, remix, and transform the creative works of the past to build on what came before.

Essentially, he argues that everything has been done before, but you shouldn’t let that stop you from creating your artwork.

I love this idea and when coupled with principles like “don’t wait until you know who you are to get started” and “do good work and share it,” the book really acts as a trigger to inspire you to create.

Catching the Big Fish

I liked this book when I read it because it brought meditation into artistic creation and it bridges the first two books on this list with the final book. David Lynch spoke to me in a way I could understand and he opened my mind to a more spiritual way of finding ideas from within myself.

The title refers to Lynch's idea that "ideas are like fish.” He states that “if you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper". Meaning to truly create groundbreaking ideas you need to go deep within yourself, which is why meditation is important.

I enjoyed this book because Lynch’s discussion on the importance of meditation was something that I really began to embrace in my 30s, changing the way I’ve created ever since.

The Untethered Soul

This book honestly changed my life; it helped me look at things from a different perspective. I’ve always wanted to be present and live in the moment but could never really understand that concept until I read Michael Singer’s “The Untethered Soul.”

Singer goes from scientific to spiritual and truly helps you understand the meaning of consciousness as he walks you through your thoughts and emotions, helping you better understand yourself.

This is definitely one of my favorite books of all time. It’s not about creativity at all, yet has been so transformative for me both personally and creatively. I’d really recommend it to anyone searching for inspiration. 

You can find all of these books on iBooks, Kindle, or Barnes + Noble. But if you’d liked to buy a hard copy I have created an Amazon list with all of the books I’ve discussed, along with many more books and art supplies that I absolutely love!