I love books. The thing is I find that I don’t buy them for myself, but rather add them to digital or handwritten ‘wishlists’, passing them on to friends and family for special occasions like birthdays and Christmas.
The collection below are largely books I personally own, with a few I’ve added to my ever growing wishlist.
They’ve been a great resource to me as a multi-disciplined creative and are recommendations for the maker, artist, cook and creatives in your life.
For the Maker & Artist: One of the hardest things for creatives is balancing the line between art and commerce, many of the books below help do just that and have been invaluable to me in forging my own path.
1.Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon
Heralded as a manifesto for the digital age, it’s positive message, graphic look and illustrations, exercises, and examples puts readers directly in touch with their artistic side.
2. Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day by Todd Henry
A tool for people who aren’t willing to put off their most important work for another day. Todd explains the forces that keep us stagnated, and introduces a process for instilling consistent practices into your life that will keep you on a true and steady course.
3. Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind by Jocelyn K. Glei
Packed with the wisdom from over 20 leading creative minds, a toolkit for tackling the new challenges of a 24/7, always-on workplace.
4. Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality by Scott Belsky
The capacity to make ideas happen can be developed by anyone willing to develop their organizational habits and leadership capability. Scott spent 6 years distilling these processes and shares them his this process driven book.
5. Rework by Jason Fried
A better, faster, easier way to succeed in business, it’s filled with light bulb moments and is the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever dreamed of doing it on their own.
6. Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration by Scott Doorley
A winning resource for activating creativity, communication and innovation by empowering anyone to take control of an environment.
7. The Handmade Marketplace: How to Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally, and Online by Kari Chapin
A feature packed resource filled with the latest on-line and social media opportunities for sales and marketing, as well as fresh advice and invaluable tips from successful crafters and artists alike.
8. Art, Inc.: The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist by Lisa Congdon
You don’t need to starve as an artist! This book reveals the many ways you can earn a living by making art—through illustration, licensing, fine art sales, print sales, teaching, and beyond.
9. Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business by Joy Deangdeelert Cho
A great one for all types of creatives, illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, animators, and more how to build a successful business doing what they love.
10. Creative Block: Get Unstuck, Discover New Ideas. Advice & Projects from 50 Successful Artists by Danielle Krysa
Chock-full of solutions for overcoming all manner of artistic impediment. 50 successful international artists working in different mediums share their insights on how to conquer self-doubt, stay motivated, and get new ideas to flow.
For the Cook: This selection is not just about preparing a meal, but also about thinking about how you eat, the ethics behind it and a collection of recipes that bring friends and family closer together.
11. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan researches the ethics and processes behind 21st century food production. It’s no longer enough to rely on terms like ‘organic’ and ‘free-range’, and this book dives head first into the murky waters of modern agriculture, arming you with the information you need to make informed decisions.
12. How to Cook Everything The Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food by Mark Bittman
Celebrated NY Times columnist, Mark Bittman unpacks the basics of food preparation, though this book is anything but an idiots guide, rather a contemporary guide to cooking, well, just about everything.
13. The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook by Niki Segnit
This book is a kitchen essential. It takes years to develop pairing skills and this book takes out the guess work, a perfect gift for both the novice and seasoned cook a like. It’s beautifully written, thoroughly researched and highly entertaining.
14. The Kinfolk Table: Recipes for Small Gatherings by Nathan Williams
Kinfolk launched a few years ago as a quarterly magazine dedicated to unfussy, understated entertaining. This book is compendium of many of those early recipes and is dedicated to a time of good old fashioned eating in the company of others.
15. The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adrià by Ferran AdriÃ
Ferran Adrià is hailed as the Godfather of molecular gastronomy, his legendary restaurant El Bulli was awarded World’s Best Restaurant, five times. This book however chooses to focus not on what he served his guests, but rather what the kitchen staff ate as they sat down to eat together before service. It contains over 100 recipes that are split into 3-course meal options, perfect for planning dinner parties.
For the Creative: I love interiors, I think you’ll be hard pressed to find any creative who isn’t drawn into a well designed and decorated space. I find today that many coffee table books are very much a like and so I’ve endeavored to showcase books here that are a little left-field, not your run of the mill interior books.
16. Decorating with Style by Abigail Ahern
Often referred to as the “Queen of Dark” Abigail Ahern embraces off beat interior accents and dark, broody color schemes. This book is geared towards helping you take risks with interior design, embracing what you love, and filling your home with infectiously fabulous stuff: comforting, inviting and imbued with personality.
17. Rethink: The Way You Live by Amanda Talbot
Rethink: The Way you Live is provocative and thought provoking, revealing the ways we can weave creativity, sustainability, quality and technology into our lives and homes.
18. Wabi Inspirations by Axel Vervoordt
Axel Vervoordt has carved out a name for himself as an understated interior designer who embraces the age old Japanese principles of Wabi-Sabi, finding the beauty in things that imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.
19. Northern Delights: Scandinavian Homes, Interiors and Design by Emma Fexeus
Northern Delights offers inspiration to designers, architects, and individuals in equal measure, showcasing the timeless beauty, quality, and humane functionality that make Scandinavian interiors so warm and inviting.
20. Hide and Seek: The Architecture of Cabins and Hideouts by Sofia Borges
Our longing for simplicity, clarity, and relaxation often leads us back into nature. Hide and Seek showcases the most beautiful places for satisfying this longing, armchair travel meets soul searching escapism.
