Friday, August 28, 2015

Worth a Read

One of the regular features in my newsletter, The Scrap Basket, is 'Worth a Read.' Usually I share quite a variety of things I've found on the interwebs - techniques, photography, just stuff I find interesting and think you might too. Something I keep meaning to post about here and there are a couple of books I've read recently. Both by Austin Kleon, the first was a random gift from a friend, Steal Like An Artist. {Thanks Hillary!} Apparently I was the last crafty person to hear about this book as it made the rounds a while back, but I was intrigued from the get-go. First, the word 'steal' was in the title - not something I consider doing. But I really liked the subtitle: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative. Ok then.

Show Your Work!10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered is the 2nd book, and I found it just as inspiring, if not more so. 

One of the great features of these little books is that the format keeps your attention. They are just plain fun to read. I spread it out, reading a chapter or so a day, highlighter in hand. The books are full of inspiring gems. One that stuck with me was the challenge to "do good work and share it with people." That I can do.

Another takeaway was "share something small every day", which I already try to do, whether it's on Instagram, facebook, or here on the blog. And there was a section about 'sharing your trade secrets' that I really appreciated . . . "Teaching people doesn't subtract value from what you do, it actually adds to it."

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this pair and they gave me much food for thought about my own creativity and the ways I share it. I'm thinking you might like them too.

16 comments:

  1. you were not the last to hear of them. apparently I was! Ha! I put them on my Amazon wishlist...

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  2. Thank you Debbie! I try to get these. x Teje

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  3. These have been on my favorites list for a LONG time - SO much in those pages to keep us creating and sharing . . .

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  4. Hillary has good taste in books (and friends)- I'm throughly enjoying Paul Arden's "Whatever you think, think the Opposite". So much of what I read is in the spirit of exploring and pushing yourself like this line" Even a bad idea executed is better than a good idea undone" Here's to limiting our non-idea and making things happen.

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  5. Thanks for the heads up. Just ordered them from Amazon. One of the dogs is going in for surgery in early September. This will be a great take along for the waiting room.

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  6. I've heard about his books, but haven't read them yet! As soon as the shrieking minions are in school, I'm going to have a nice long day at the library finding all the books I wanted to read this summer. I live the "do good work and share it" quote!

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  7. I love both of these books! So many good ideas in here to think about no matter what you're creative outlet is!

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  8. I found much in Kleon's book(s) to be informative and a new way of thinking. I really liked his idea that if you borrow, please attribute. I've had a chance to browse through my Barbara Brackman Encyclopedia of Quilt Blocks recently and many blocks that she has in her book have been re-imagined by others recently, yet not attributed. Like Bill Volkening, in his lecture in QuiltCon, I often wonder why we don't identify those original quilt blocks. And like Kleon, I think our community would be richer for it.

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  9. oh, both of these sound super fun. Must check them out as well. Thanks for sharing.

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  10. No, you were not the last to hear about these books.... I have now reserved them from my local library and will use some of my upcoming Spring break reading them! Thanks for sharing!

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  11. Very interesting. I've looked at them before on Amazon but didn't know it they were what they were hyped up to be. I'll have to take a better look now!

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  12. Thank you for the suggestion. I hadn't heard of it either. Will have to check it out.

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  13. Oooh, I haven't seen these before. Thanks for the suggestions!

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  14. Isn't it nice to read a quality book and realize that you're on the right track? I've always believed sharing is a good thing, and it has been affirmed many times in my quilting journey. Thanks for sharing these titles, neither of which I have heard of.

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  15. Sharing is like kindness and gratitude, there is always enough to go around.

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