Book Review-The Creative Act: A Way of Being By Rick Rubin

This book lived up to the hype. A perennial reference for the rest of my life.

I first became aware of this book through advertising on social media. I read through some of the reviews and decided that this was a book that I might like to read since I enjoyed Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art (Pressfield 2003). I thought this book covered the same ground. It did and it didn’t, it proved to be much more expansive about the creative act while examining the process from a different viewpoint.

I have been aware of Rick Rubin since he rose to prominence as a music producer who was not only successful but also as someone who did creative things his own way. Upon first reading about the book, I didn’t know what to expect. Rubin is more relaxed and passionate about his approach to being creative, much like Pressfield. Yet the two books pose a good counterpoint to one another. It feeds the part of me that doesn’t know what I don’t know about being creative.

This is a difficult book to categorize. It is one of the books that I will make sure to keep within arm’s length as both a reference and a source of motivation to pursue the creative side of my personality. I have taken copious notes on topics that made me sit up and take notice as I read. Each essay is a pleasure to read, and Rubin’s writing easily drew me the essays; more importantly, every essay made me think in great depth about the topic, about the topic even though many of the essays are short.

There are seventy-eight essays, or more accurately, short expositions on different topics, all are facets of the broader idea of being creative. The expositions were ordered in a logical sequence, yet it did not feel like Rubin follow a rigid outline.

The initial expositions gently led the readers into his world, a world where creativity is nurtured and allowed to grow organically and in a timely manner. The idea is to allow the muse to be challenged and excited while not allowing the creator to wait on the muse.

Even though I purchased the book soon after it was published, I took my time reading it, savoring the relaxed pace and rhythm that Rubin created within the structure of the book. I was in no hurry to finish, so I didn’t read it in a heated rush. Fortunately, my reading pace made me go back and re-visit some of the expositions in more depth because of the time and space that I had sandwiched in between readings. This exercise in re-reading allowed me to look at the expositions with different eyes and understand the content with different perspectives. This exercise made the expositions multi-dimensional in my mind’s eye, it made the ideas multi-dimensional.

I will be re-reading this book repeatedly as I travel this path of life. I am looking forward to gaining more perspective on the messages that Rubin is communicating.

References

Pressfield, Steven. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles. NYC: Warner Books, 2003.