Welcome to Read This Book, a newsletter where I recommend one book that should absolutely be put at the top of your TBR pile. Recommended books will vary across genre and age category and include shiny new books, older books you may have missed, and some classics I suggest finally getting around to.
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Today’s pick is a nonfiction recommendation for fellow creatives and creative-wannabes.
Creative Quest by Questlove
Many people have really strong opinions about creative advice, regardless of the type of project. Some folks have advice that they swear by. Create daily, build a habit, etc. Other folks have the opinion that being creative is so unique to each individual that all advice, in essence, is incredibly unhelpful at best and flat out bad at worst. Personally, I apply a some/many/most framework. Some people think creative advice is useless. Many people find value in creative advice. Most people can usually find at least one thing of value in a pile of creative advice. This is why I tend to read books about creativity. I don’t expect that every single thing in the book will be inspirational to me but I expect to find at least a few things that I can identify with and apply to my own writing, music, cooking, etc.
Creative Quest by Amir Thompson (AKA Questlove) likely has a bit of something for everyone. Questlove is the co-founder of the music group The Roots (which is also the house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon). Questlove is a drummer, a DJ, an author, a culinary entrepreneur, a designer, and more. This man does not stop.
A warning about this book which was written a few years ago, he does use a couple of comedians as creativity examples (one of the comedians is a transphobe, the other is a rapist). Otherwise, I enjoyed this book! He not only gives advice on being a creative, but he also explores what creativity means, how different people may define it, and has some great discussions on creativity inspired by other creative works.
One thing he talks about that I don’t read enough of in such advice books is the importance (for some people) of being an apprentice or having a mentor. A lot of people can benefit from that kind of relationship and there is always such an emphasis on doing things on your own when having a creative community is important because nothing happens in a vacuum. Related is another idea he talks about, which is cultivating a network. Something Questlove spends a lot of time talking about is curation. Curation as an important part of the creative process and curation as creativity itself. I’m inspired to read that section again because there was a lot of good stuff in it.
I do want to note that there is definitely music used throughout the audiobook which can be an absolute cacophony of sound if you turn the speed up on your audiobook players like I do.
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That’s it for now, book-lovers!
Patricia
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