Friday, April 3, 2015

What I'm Reading: Daily Rituals

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Aha! The first post in a series I've been meaning to start for quite a while. I love books. I love reading. And even though school keeps me pretty much glued to books for class, once in a while I get to read what I want. Whatever I want. Freedom!

One of the books I've been working through lately is Daily Rituals, by Mason Curry. It's a compilation of the routines and habits from famous creatives over the last several centuries. And it's a wonderful bite size book, meaning you can easily start or end the day with a few pages and feel a little smarter in the process. It's kind of become my daily ritual to wake up in the morning, eat my cereal and crack open this book for the few minutes I have.

Curry says in the introduction that he hopes you find this book inspiring rather than intimidating, and I have found that to be true. All the writers, painters, filmmakers described in this book have different styles of working, different times of day in which they find themselves most productive. But the long and the short of it is, they do the work. And and rework until it's good. I'm learning lessons on how to stay serious about my own writing and my own art, and how to establish a working schedule for myself, whether I'm like Toni Morrison and have a full time job or like Gustav Mahler who had people to wait on him.

And bonus: there are some quotes of great wisdom in here too.
“Basically, I enjoy everything: I am never bored.“- Henri Matesse

So that's mine. What are you reading?

2 comments:

Happy to hear from you! Let's play word ping pong.