Review of 'Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
DISCLAIMER: I dozed through about 15% of this book. I had a migraine and was traveling. I didn't have the patience to rewind.
I wanted to give this a 2.5, but since I didn't actively dislike it, I rounded up. Overall, good narration, and I enjoyed a lot of the chapters. Gilbert is funny and compelling in her reading, but she's also a little... hokey? I don't believe that creativity is an entity unto itself. I don't think stories choose their storytellers, and if you don't fulfill your end of the bargain the inspiration will leave you.
But she did make some good points about acknowledging what you can and can't control in your pursuit of a creative life and about how important it is to know what you want out of your creativity. She had some valuable perspectives and even more interesting ones that I wouldn't have considered without …
DISCLAIMER: I dozed through about 15% of this book. I had a migraine and was traveling. I didn't have the patience to rewind.
I wanted to give this a 2.5, but since I didn't actively dislike it, I rounded up. Overall, good narration, and I enjoyed a lot of the chapters. Gilbert is funny and compelling in her reading, but she's also a little... hokey? I don't believe that creativity is an entity unto itself. I don't think stories choose their storytellers, and if you don't fulfill your end of the bargain the inspiration will leave you.
But she did make some good points about acknowledging what you can and can't control in your pursuit of a creative life and about how important it is to know what you want out of your creativity. She had some valuable perspectives and even more interesting ones that I wouldn't have considered without this book. It was the perfect book for vacation: fun enough, but easy to set aside when there was something else to be done.
