Good books are medicine to a creative mind. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to just drone out in front of TV but instead pick up a book and turn my evening from sludgery to inspiration. My latest book binge came on the employee discount day at the Museum of Fine Arts. As you can imagine, the MFA has a lot of great books on creativity in its store. I went up to the new titles table and walked away with seven new books that are eagerly waiting to be read.
One of them was It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden. It’s a small, pocket-szed book which managed to squeeze its way into my knapsack in between my keys, wallet, folders of classes I’m going to teach, and books from the classes I’m taking. Arden’s book was a perfect commuting book. The type of thing you can hold with one hand while squished between a million different people on the T at rush hour.
The book not only mentally transported me out of the terror of rush hour T rides, it also was the last piece I needed to solidify an idea that’s been fermenting in my mind for a few weeks now. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do for my master’s thesis in the spring and by reading Arden’s book I found it. (No, I’m not going to tell you what it is, but I can promise that it will completely cover this blog soon).
Arden’s book is highly designed, which bold fonts, lots of images, and clearly organized ideas. If anything its more like a picture book for adults than a series of essays on creativity, and that was just what I needed.