Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon

I was gifted Steal Like An Artist during one of the various COVID lockdowns of 2021. It came exactly at a time during which I was feeling a total slump in creativity, and could not muster the energy to focus on my creative writing.

It's a short and sweet book which helps ignite creativity. I like that it doesn't focus on motivation — rather on getting over the fear of creating and simply starting.

One of the best bits of creative advice comes up in chapter two, in which Kleon tells the reader to start creating, rather than waiting to discover who you are, or your innate style, or one of the myriad of excuses we use to wait around for the 'perfect moment' to strike.

“If I’d waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started “being creative,” well, I’d still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things. In my experience, it’s in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are”

— Steal Like An Artist, pg. 27

This book is highly recommended for all types of creatives. It takes only 10-15 minutes to read, and by the end of it you look at the world with a fresh creative vantage point.