thewolfandherbooks 's review for:

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

5.0

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The Creative Act is a book that has refilled my well of creativity. He uses his experiences as an artist to share his musings on how to ignore the formula, break convention, and to lean into our natural talents. He often emphasizes that an artist isn’t something we do, but rather something we embody simply by existing. A lot of what was said reminded me of Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert in the sense that is not a hyper-analytical book at all, so I recommend taking his lessons with a grain of salt. A lot of what is written is non-specific; you aren't given exact directions or "rules" to apply to your life. You basically infer from it what you need. I didn't have an issue with this because I'm an abstract thinker and his perspective resonated with me on a personal level. I annotated, highlighted, and took notes in the margins and allowed inspiration to take hold. I will say that the last 50-70 pages did start to get a little repetitive so the book could have been cut shorter. Even so, I see myself rereading The Creative Act time and time again.