Category Archives: Books

About Condo Shopping and Bookshelves

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My husband and I looked at a lot of condos last spring in search of the perfect one to invest in. One of the fun parts of this is getting to peek in on other people’s homes, on their lives really. When house shopping, you’re allowed to open closets and vanity drawers, notice where they have shoved the messes and if, perhaps, they don’t have any at all. Inevitably, I’m always drawn to the bookshelves.

What do other people read? I make assessments as I go. This one only has coffee table books. Verdict: not a reader at all, just likes the pictures. This one has shelves full of DVDs and (gasp!) VHS tapes! But even more befuddling, not a TV, or a VCR for that matter, in sight. Ummm, what? Another office held binders upon binders full of papers destined for the recycle bin, hearkening to a professional life and a time before documents were saved in the Cloud.

And then there are the ones with the copious collections of every book they ever purchased and hopefully read, just sitting there, pregnant again on the shelf. The wide array is just a trophy case to me, a testament yes, of great swathes of literature (or not) combed through over many years. But it doesn’t tell me much except how important you feel it is to keep so many books.

Most intriguing to me are the homes with neatened piles of books on the nightstand, all with bookmarks halfway in all of them, some fiction, some not, a testimony to a voracious and varied reading and learning life. All around the house there are small dog-eared collections tucked carefully away in closets and piled on the toilet tank or in baskets in the living room. A hasty retreat has left a Robert Galbraith face down on the top shelf of the coat closet and now they can’t read the next excellent chapter at the coffeeshop they’ve gone to because dammit, they forgot their book.

It makes me sad when I enter a home and see…no books. I know some people just aren’t readers, I get it and…maybe. Whatever. And I know that some have forsaken the physical bookshelf for their Kindles full of fascinating titles, that they keep private and easy to transport. Or they frugally and responsibly read all their books from the library. But I like the personality that a curated, actual bookshelf displays. Sure, it’s nice to make another notch in the reading belt and wedge the latest conquest in between others of the same height and width. I prefer to add to my ‘Books Read’ list in my current journal and if I decide I will most definitely never read it again (because really, who has time to re-read mediocre or unsatisfying books?), I will add it to my give away box or return it to the library.

My own bookshelves hold only my favorites, the ones I hope to get back to someday or that I’ve marked up and dog-eared so that I can easily return to a favorite place. This has surprised some people who know how much I read and how I prefer physical books to their digital and audio counterparts. Because while I have quite a few books, I have given away probably hundreds more, most purchased for only a dollar or two at the local thrift store. Either they or the library book sale will get my cast-offs so it’s not wasteful on my part, it’s a donation. But I would hope that looking at my shelves you would get a sense of this girl who loves YA and historical novels, art and writing books, memoirs and spiritual guides, all grouped together meaningfully, hoping to impart some creativity in their arrangement in addition to the art in their pages.

About Maturity: Be Boring

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From Austin Kleon’s brilliant book Steal Like an Artist

The great myth about prolific artists and entrepreneurs and people who, in general, just get a lot of sh*t done, is that they are more talented, have better connections or are just luckier than the rest of us. It’s the legend of the overnight success that has us green with envy and groaning that we couldn’t possibly ever get “there”, wherever “there” is.

Sure there are the crazy stories of someone who wrote one song about a pen, a pineapple and an apple and made a million dollars. (Disclaimer: this is all unsubstantiated hyperbole). You hear about these people because it’s so crazy and extreme. And that kind of stuff goes bonkers on Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.

The more likely story for someone who is trying to write a book, start a business or promote their fabulous line of cat backpacks looks like clocking a lotta hours on your passion project. And to the outside eye, it actually looks kinda boring.

“Be Boring” is one of the creativity secrets that Austin Kleon, “a writer who draws”, advocates in his book Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative. What Kleon is saying is not “sit on the couch and watch TV and never go anywhere or do anything.” Instead, he says that creativity requires a lot of energy so you need to set parameters on the rest of your life: keep your day job, stay out of debt, buy an calendar and use it, and make good marriages – both romantic and in business.

Austin Kleon is one of my favorite authors, but even more impressive to me is his practice of blogging every day. In my short experience as a twice-a-week blogger, this is just plain old impressive. I am finding it an uphill battle to be consistent, to find those pockets of time to write, to Keep Going – it even seems a little well, boring sometimes, compared to a night on the couch watching TV.

But that’s the lie. Don’t get me wrong – I like taking a break just as much as the next gal. The lie comes in when I tell myself, Oh, I can write or do the dishes or work out later. Instead, later finds me still on the couch and I’ve done nothing to move my life forward in a positive direction.

Growing up is a lot about being boring. Except boring might not look the same to everyone. It can look like sitting at my desk, going for a walk, or nurturing those habits that will shape my life like the tide slowly carves out a rock.

This advice from Kleon rings true to me. I know in my heart that the only way I will get those important big things done is by being consistent with those gentle boring everyday habits.

About Writing: An Old Book Review

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Nearly twenty years ago, I went to my first writer’s conference. It was a heady event for me, never having gone to one before, but doubly so because I had scored an anniversary event for Inscribe Christian Writers. Some pretty heavy hitters were in the lineup: Janette Oke, Maxine Hancock, Phil Callaway, Linda Hall. And they were all good – I still have my crib notes of their writing advice.

I met many other great people/writers that weekend and one of them (Elaine Froese – I know you’re still out there!) sent me home with a book recommendation that turned out to be life-changing for me.

“Don’t worry about the new age-y parts,” she advised. “Just read it and do what she says.” She, of course, being the Julia Cameron, creativity maven.

“I just finished Week 4,” she said. “I’m heading into the ‘reading deprivation’ assignment – and I’m not going to listen to the the radio or anything when I’m on the combine this week – just to see what happens.” Sounds eerily like a modern-day media fast.

Something about Elaine’s bold endorsement intrigued me and I soon got my hands on my own copy of The Artist’s Way. A personal copy is ideal because trust me, you will mark it up. My book is filled with highlighter, underlines, stars and my scribbled answers to her questions, often dated as I have gone through the book several times, so it’s interesting to see what’s changed and what has stayed the same.

Basically, The Artist’s Way is Cameron’s twelve week (an homage to AA’s 12 Steps?) paradigm-busting, creativity-boosting, writer-unblocking program. But it’s not just for writers or artists: Cameron asserts that everyone would benefit by submitting to the rules and the tools – bankers, hockey players, maybe even the odd prime minister (or president) could find some clarity.

The tools are simple, and yet oh-so-hard to get done: The Morning Pages – vomiting up 3 pages of stream of consciousness writing every morning and: taking your artist on a weekly Artist Date – a field trip for your inner child that will “fill the well”, replenish your head and heart with the images, smells, sounds, tastes and textures necessary to create freely and originally.

I was never a perfect student of The Artist’s Way. I never completed an entire twelve week run of morning pages and I stood up my inner artist more times than I’d like to count. But every page of Cameron’s seminal work has great words, excellent questions, and inspiring quotes – doing your homework even half-fast will reap benefits for your creative freedom, in whatever way you choose to express it.