Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Resource for All Artists
Review: All artists need a daily dose of positive thinking every single day, and this book provides just that. As a Creativity Coach who has studied with Eric Maisel, I can say that everything he writes is well grounded in his personal experiences and successes.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource for All Artists
Review: All artists need a daily dose of positive thinking every single day, and this book provides just that. As a Creativity Coach who has studied with Eric Maisel, I can say that everything he writes is well grounded in his personal experiences and successes.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth a Year of Your Time
Review: Eric Maisel has given us a nice book filled with inspiration and creative guidance.This book is structured in 52 weekly segments starting with beginning work and ending up with a project that should be completed. Each short chapter contains a brief essay of guidance and then an inventive exercise to try on for size. The author of this book, Eric Maisel, Ph.D., is a psychologist who teaches that the act of creating impacts all aspects of one's life. So this book is intended for everyone, not just those struggling to survive artistic blocks. Executives can develop new business ideas, cooks can create better dishes, lawyers can find new ways to argue, politicians can consider alternative ways to create democracy, children can become better students and so on. Overall an extremely good book for those willing to put forth a bit of effort towards creating new ideas.
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading, doing, keeping, re-reading
Review: Eric Maisel is a prolific writer with a penchant for helping artists. And this book is no exception. For those who have read Cameron's "The Artist's Way," in the required number of weeks and wish there were other timed guides, Maisel's book is the answer. It's a year's worth of creative work, some gentle and imaginative, some kick-in-the-rear tough. I'll admit I read all the way through it, and I'll bet Maisel knew that most readers would. It's an interesting read that way, with Maisel's wry observations and self-deprecating humor serving as another level of inspiration. There is a lot hiding in this book, waiting to be discovered. The quotes in the scholar's margins create their own interesting commentary. Use this book to dip into when you are bored, stymied, frustrated, lonely or stuck. You won't come away feeling the same way. You might not want to do every exercise Maisel suggests, but imagining them might be enough to give you creative traction again.
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading, doing, keeping, re-reading
Review: Eric Maisel is a prolific writer with a penchant for helping artists. And this book is no exception. For those who have read Cameron's "The Artist's Way," in the required number of weeks and wish there were other timed guides, Maisel's book is the answer. It's a year's worth of creative work, some gentle and imaginative, some kick-in-the-rear tough. I'll admit I read all the way through it, and I'll bet Maisel knew that most readers would. It's an interesting read that way, with Maisel's wry observations and self-deprecating humor serving as another level of inspiration. There is a lot hiding in this book, waiting to be discovered. The quotes in the scholar's margins create their own interesting commentary. Use this book to dip into when you are bored, stymied, frustrated, lonely or stuck. You won't come away feeling the same way. You might not want to do every exercise Maisel suggests, but imagining them might be enough to give you creative traction again.
Rating:
Summary: Very helpful
Review: Eric Maisel understands that fear comes with unleashing our creativity. Gently prodding us in a day-by-day program, he shows us that we can get past our doubts to produce the work we're inspired to do and achieve creative success. His specific suggestions will help you get past your frozen moments that might otherwise turn into years. ~~Joan Mazza, author of DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF and DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE
Rating:
Summary: Very helpful
Review: Eric Maisel understands that fear comes with unleashing our creativity. Gently prodding us in a day-by-day program, he shows us that we can get past our doubts to produce the work we're inspired to do and achieve creative success. His specific suggestions will help you get past your frozen moments that might otherwise turn into years. ~~Joan Mazza, author of DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF and DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE
Rating:
Summary: Buy this book!
Review: I bought this book some years ago and let it languish on my bookshelves. But this is a book to read and *do*. There's no way you could read this book and do the exercises without changing your life. Maisel is my hero because when he gets an idea for a book he actually writes the book. He's written lots of good books but this one is my favourite.
Rating:
Summary: Get to know yourself.
Review: I read this book in a much shorter time than I am supposing one is supposed to, as this book is broken down by weeks so that one can apply the guidance over a course of a year. There were some good ideas here! Lots of techniques on how to get to know yourself/find yourself better. Become more creative by not being so afraid of failure, and by exploring new possibilities and areas in your life. If you follow the exercises , I can guarantee that you will live a much richer life. Four stars since there are many other books that offer the similar--albeit good--advice. Selected one sentence quotes could have been better chosen.
Rating:
Summary: Creativity for anyone--not just writers and artists
Review: I'm quite fond of Eric Maisel's books. He's a psychotherapist and "creativity consultant," and he has written a number of books on writing, art, and creativity. Several of them are among my favorite writing books: "Living the Writer's Life," "Deep Writing," and "Write Mind." Unlike those books, "The Creativity Book" is not aimed specifically at writers. It's aimed at you, me, your brother, and the guy in the cubicle down the hall. In other words, anyone who'd like to use a little more creativity in their lives, whether for painting, writing, mathematics, relationships, or business plans. The book is designed to be read one section at a time, to take you through a year of learning. It has 88 sections, two per week, to get you through ten months, and then the idea is that you spend the last two months of your year devoted to a particular creative project. Each base section is pretty short--generally a page or three--so you'll have no trouble reading it in a few spare minutes some evening. Then it's followed by at least one exercise, and sometimes several. Sometimes the exercises are very specific; at other times, Maisel suggests ways to apply the exercises to whatever area you're trying to become more creative in. Many of the ideas in the book are relatively basic, but this in no way makes them useless. After all, they're only basic for people who are already highly creative and making abundant use of that creativity. In large part this book is designed to help those who aren't sure where to start when it comes to creativity, and who haven't had much luck sitting down and getting started with their creative projects. Even highly creative people will still find things of value in this book, however. Some sections will feel like remedial schooling, but others might unlock surprising ways for you to move forward in your work. People with more experience using their creativity might prefer to skip from section to section instead of following the "plan," however, using the bits that have particular value to them.
| 
