Ideas and Inspiration: Books for the Artistically Inclined

As the cold shell of a new year keeps us indoors, why not try something new from a creative or artistic perspective.  We all need a push sometimes to propel us in this direction, and the East Brunswick Public Library is stock full of books to spark creativity.

Author and Professor Amy Whitaker provides sound advice on how to divide blocks of time into more manageable portions, allowing us to process a task or endeavor that at first may seem insurmountable.  Art Thinking: How To Carve Out Creative Space In A World Of Schedules, Budgets, And Bosses is a handy tool to help guide one through this development.

Using research from psychology and social science, Tim Harford praises the need for disorder in our lives in Messy : The Power Of Disorder To Transform Our Lives by Tim Harford.  Instead of constantly tidying up, sometimes it best to just embrace the mess.  For those looking to truly harness their most creative aspects after accepting an inevitable degree of chaos, Let me Out : Unlock Your Creative Mind and Bring Your Ideas to Life offers the next bit of sage advice. 

For a peak into the minds of the most innovative thinkers, author Adam Grant penned the 2016 bestseller Originals: How Non-conformists Move the World.  Studies and thought experiments take Grant through diverse areas such as politics, sports, business, and entertainment, tracing the commonalities between these different paths to success. 

New York Times film critic A.O. Scott demonstrates criticism as a necessary step toward growth and self-reflection in Better Living Through Criticism: How To Think About Art, Pleasure, Beauty, And Truth, an exercise in how he tries to get the most out of artists through his articles.