book pickings

a visual way to explore the brain pickings book archive :: otlet's shelf theme :: back to brain pickings

CREATIVITY :: DESIGN :: SCIENCE :: HISTORY :: PSYCHOLOGY :: ART

  1. Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind (The 99U Book Series) Jocelyn K. Glei “A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.” The pace of productivity and how to master your creative routine

    Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind (The 99U Book Series)

    Jocelyn K. Glei

    “A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.”

    The pace of productivity and how to master your creative routine
  2. Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design Debbie Millman “If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve. Do what you love, and don’t stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities, don’t compromise, and don’t waste time. Start now. Not 20 years from now, not two weeks from now. Now.” Debbie Millman’s fantastic illustrated essays of wisdom on the creative life – a timeless treat halfway between philosophy and design:

    Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design

    Debbie Millman

    “If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve. Do what you love, and don’t stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities, don’t compromise, and don’t waste time. Start now. Not 20 years from now, not two weeks from now. Now.”

    Debbie Millman’s fantastic illustrated essays of wisdom on the creative life – a timeless treat halfway between philosophy and design:
  3. Make Good Art Neil Gaiman “Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before.” Neil Gaiman’s fantastic commencement address, adapted by design legend Chip Kidd

    Make Good Art

    Neil Gaiman

    “Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before.”

    Neil Gaiman’s fantastic commencement address, adapted by design legend Chip Kidd
  4. No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood Women writers and comedians on the choice not to have children

    No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood

    Women writers and comedians on the choice not to have children
  5. A Year With Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno’s Diary Brian Eno “Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences.” Music pioneer Brian Eno on the essence of art in excerpts from his diary

    A Year With Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno’s Diary

    Brian Eno

    “Stop thinking about art works as objects, and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences.”

    Music pioneer Brian Eno on the essence of art in excerpts from his diary
  6. The Mighty Lalouche Matthew Olshan & Sophie Blackall What Parisian boxing from the early 1900s has to do with contemporary technoparanoia about robots replacing us – a heartening underdog story illustrated by the inimitable Sophie Blackall

    The Mighty Lalouche

    Matthew Olshan & Sophie Blackall

    What Parisian boxing from the early 1900s has to do with contemporary technoparanoia about robots replacing us – a heartening underdog story illustrated by the inimitable Sophie Blackall
  7. Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America Jon Mooallem “Maybe you have to believe in the value of everything to believe in the value of anything.” What an obscure endangered butterfly teaches us about parenthood, legacy, and being human

    Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America

    Jon Mooallem

    “Maybe you have to believe in the value of everything to believe in the value of anything.”

    What an obscure endangered butterfly teaches us about parenthood, legacy, and being human
  8. How to Worry Less about Money (School of Life) John Armstrong “This book is about worries. It’s not about money troubles. There’s a crucial difference. Troubles are urgent. They ask for direct action. … By contrast, worries often say more about the worrier than about the world. […] So, addressing money WORRIES should be quite different from dealing with money TROUBLES. To address our worries we have to give attention to the pattern of thinking (ideology) and to the scheme of values (culture) as these are played out in our won individual, private existences.” Fantastic, essential read:

    How to Worry Less about Money (School of Life)

    John Armstrong

    “This book is about worries. It’s not about money troubles. There’s a crucial difference.

    Troubles are urgent. They ask for direct action. … By contrast, worries often say more about the worrier than about the world.

    […]

    So, addressing money WORRIES should be quite different from dealing with money TROUBLES. To address our worries we have to give attention to the pattern of thinking (ideology) and to the scheme of values (culture) as these are played out in our won individual, private existences.”

    Fantastic, essential read:
  9. Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits Debbie Millman “Maybe the modern version of introspection is the sum total of all those highly individualized choices that we make about the material content of our lives.” Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Dan Pink, and other cultural mavens on how and why we define ourselves through what we consume, be it the books we read or the brands we buy – a must-read.

    Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits

    Debbie Millman

    “Maybe the modern version of introspection is the sum total of all those highly individualized choices that we make about the material content of our lives.”

    Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Dan Pink, and other cultural mavens on how and why we define ourselves through what we consume, be it the books we read or the brands we buy – a must-read.
  10. Advice to Little Girls Mark Twain Only the best thing ever: Advice to Little Girls – a playful and mischievous short story penned by young Mark Twain in 1865 and illustrated by beloved Russian children’s book artist Vladimir Radunsky. Plenty of images, and a personal story, at the link:

    Advice to Little Girls

    Mark Twain

    Only the best thing ever: Advice to Little Girls – a playful and mischievous short story penned by young Mark Twain in 1865 and illustrated by beloved Russian children’s book artist Vladimir Radunsky. Plenty of images, and a personal story, at the link:
  11. Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology Caroline Paul & Wendy MacNaughton “You can never know anyone as completely as you want. But that’s okay, love is better.” A spectacular illustrated meditation on love, loss, and what it means to be human:

    Lost Cat: A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology

    Caroline Paul & Wendy MacNaughton

    “You can never know anyone as completely as you want. But that’s okay, love is better.”

    A spectacular illustrated meditation on love, loss, and what it means to be human:
  12. Don’t Go Back to School: A Handbook for Learning Anything Kio Stark A wonderful manifesto for fueling the internal engine of lifelong learning

    Don’t Go Back to School: A Handbook for Learning Anything

    Kio Stark

    A wonderful manifesto for fueling the internal engine of lifelong learning
  13. Einstein on Peace Albert Einstein “Every man has a right over his own life and war destroys lives that were full of promise.” Einstein and Freud’s little-known correspondence on violence, peace, and human nature

    Einstein on Peace

    Albert Einstein

    “Every man has a right over his own life and war destroys lives that were full of promise.”

    Einstein and Freud’s little-known correspondence on violence, peace, and human nature
  14. Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs William S. Burroughs Meth in the morning, back to bed, then for breakfast, “a salted soft-boiled egg with toast, or perhaps fresh-squeezed lemonade, and two cups of very sweet tea.” William S. Burroughs’s defiant daily routine in the last year of his life.

    Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs

    William S. Burroughs

    Meth in the morning, back to bed, then for breakfast, “a salted soft-boiled egg with toast, or perhaps fresh-squeezed lemonade, and two cups of very sweet tea.”

    William S. Burroughs’s defiant daily routine in the last year of his life.
  15. The Designer Says: Quotes, Quips, and Words of Wisdom “Everything hangs on something else.” ~ Ray Eames Words of wisdom on design from such icons as Charles and Ray Eames, Saul Bass, Bruno Munari, Paul Rand, Edward Tufte, and more

    The Designer Says: Quotes, Quips, and Words of Wisdom

    “Everything hangs on something else.” ~ Ray Eames

    Words of wisdom on design from such icons as Charles and Ray Eames, Saul Bass, Bruno Munari, Paul Rand, Edward Tufte, and more
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