THE CREATIVE ACT: A WAY OF BEING, RICK RUBIN
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT • FOR CREATIVES • NON-FICTION
An episode of the Huberman Podcast introduced me to Rick Rubin. When I mentioned the episode to Sean (my hubby)—a music buff—he knew all about Rick and was surprised (kinda) that I didn’t. Shortly after, while strolling through Powell’s Books Hawthorn, I spotted Rick’s book on the top-seller shelf. The cloth cover and simplistic styling stood out amongst the other image-heavy covers, and the title resinated with me, so I purchased it.
Beyond the podcast episode, I hadn’t looked into the book or read the blurb.. I assumed it was a life approach that championed a creative philosophy. Sean said he wanted to read it because he assumed it would be about his career and the artists he’d worked with. (Maybe it is a record on the cover. Maybe not.) But what it turned out to be is a book geared towards creatives on how to focus their energy to bring forth what they're moved to craft.
This book for anyone who’s creative or feels a tug to create art in any medium.
Book Blurb from the Publisher’s Website:
From the legendary music producer, a master at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book many years in the making that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us.
“I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be.” —Rick Rubin
Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, but about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone’s life, and everyone can make that place larger.
The Creative Act distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments—and lifetimes—of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.
