Unfortunately, I can’t remember the first time I’ve read “Steal Like an Artist”, the first book that kicked-off the now world-famous trilogy of books by the writer (who draws) Austin Kleon. But by revisiting the book recently, I was fascinated to see how fresh still feels, even after almost 10 years since its release.
Like the other two subsequent volumes, this is a short and sweet reading experience that will stay in your mind for a really long time, especially if you are (like many people right now) someone looking to pursuing a creative practice, no matter what exactly that looks like. With the subtitle “10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative”, it’s almost a roadmap for you to follow step by step. As you start getting a bit comfortable with the “creating” part, you will naturally want to start sharing your work somewhere, unless you are following the path of Vivian Maier, which I assume you’re not, right? To make that happen, “Show Your Work” has pretty much all you need to stop thinking/worrying and start sharing! Released 2 years after the first volume, here you’ll find little tips and tricks to share your creative work around and become discoverable. Even though a lot of things changed on the internet since the book was released, all the ideas there are still pretty relevant and easily adaptable to our current times. And if you’re still hungry after reading both books, “Keep Going” is the perfect way to make sure you stay consistent and keep doing more and more of what you enjoy doing it. The subtitle “10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad” never made more sense than now.
Re-reading these books, together with taking the course ‘From Collector to Creator’ (from Ness Labs), was the final push that I needed to finally start Shuffle Sundays, my weekly Newsletter!