100 books like Things Are What You Make of Them

Austin Kleon writes short and concise tips to help you stay creative when you hit a wall, lose motivation, or are about to quit. When you work online and don’t see the immediate results of your labor translated into a cushy bank balance, it’s tempting to stop practicing and doing things that seem ineffective. Austin shares some of his creative practices that help him overcome the funk, focus on the process rather than results and set healthy boundaries to keep the work going. The book is small and easy-to-digest, peppered with the author’s own drawings. Open on any spot and be encouraged for the new day! 

As an immigrant who moved from Los Angeles to Toronto in 2018 and became a Canadienne of Américaine descent in 2023, the past five years have been challenging. Alexandra Franzen’s book reminded me that I am going to be okay, good even.

These horror stories that became celebrations of triumph showed me, in the words of Dr. Maya Angelou, how to find the rainbow in my cloud. I have faced my own share of disappointment, and I have turned lemons into lemonade. But having a book that not only tells stories of other people’s struggles but also provides survival tips based on those stories helps me to face my fear of failure and keep working toward my goals. 

One of the challenges of running an online teaching business is starting on the path of the unknown. I’ve had to face many fears on my journey, some of them are so well-masked that it took years to understand what they are. These fears have held me back. That’s why I appreciate reading Meera’s reflections on fear, how to befriend it and see it as an indication for growth. Beautifully written and illustrated, this book is a delight to hold in your hands, and I believe its message will gently guide you towards a life of overcoming your fears so you can journey into a new land of entrepreneurship with more curiosity and confidence.

Most online teachers I’ve worked with detest the idea of marketing, and yet this is something we cannot avoid especially when running our own business. Bernadette Jiwa defines marketing as a story you tell that has the capacity to change the world. In the book she shares multiple purposeful stories of people who shared their message in the most authentic way and how their courage moved others to action and brought about change. This is a guide into marketing that will make you excited about the change you seek to make and how your small online teaching business can transform the world. 

This is another book that I consider a classic and, for years, has held a place of honor on my bookshelf. I go back to it from time to time. It's like visiting a wise friend who inspires you to be the most self-expressed you can be. Julia is a great guide, and I enjoy the author's writing style, which is easy to read and relate to. As a prolific author of dozens of books, she is intelligent and generous, and she encourages readers to go deeper and wider in their creative lives. She leads the reader through a twelve-week program in the book to unleash one's creative genius.

Her signature "field work" for readers is an exercise called "morning pages," a practice of writing down your unedited thoughts each morning to clear out the old thoughts and make space for new perspectives and ideas to come forth. I have… show more.

There are lots of how-to-write books with a chapter or two on motivation, inspiration, perspiration, and how to get over writer’s block. But The Artist’s Way is all about what’s happening when the creative part of your life gets stuck, or never started in the first place. It goes to the sources of your human creative energy, and helps you to understand how to find them and feed them, and then how to unblock the channels which prevent that energy from actually flowing into your art, writing, or anything else. You can work your way through the book to establish a creative practice or, like me, return to it at different times, cherry-picking her ideas and processes to suit different kinds of stuckness. 

This book is pure genius. I have listened to it at least once a year since it came out. Not only is it brilliant, inspiring and oozing in grounded positivity, but it is also the best manifesto I have read on creativity.

Chock-full of fantastic stories that delight the senses, it is funny, devastating, and irresistibly magical. Listening to it in Liz’s own voice is totally the way to go. She is so inviting and warm and makes me feel loved and held.

The best part is that she makes a sound case for my creativity, the fact that it matters and is a worthy undertaking, purely because it gives me joy and pleasure. This book changed my life.  

This wise and wonderful little book humorously holds up a mirror to the self-sabotaging techniques that can snap a fledgling idea right off the vine. (Procrastination, anyone?) Each page features “advice,” along with hilarious illustrations, on how not to be creative, and has me ROTFLMAO with recognition. Here are some faves: “Smoke a lot of dope for inspiration. Forget why it’s called dope. Forget your inspirations.” “Compare your work to the masterworks of the great masters.” “The minute you have an idea, ask yourself: How much cold, hard cash is it worth?” “Take seriously every negative thing anyone says.” (To wit, “That ain’t art, sister.”) With a wink and the perfect amount of reverse psychology, this whimsical book skillfully catapults me out of a creative funk!  

This book is a powerful read for anyone ready to reclaim their creativity and heal their inner wounded child.

Jacob skillfully guides us through exercises that bring us home to ourselves. I include this as recommended reading in my book, and I love that Julia Cameron (another favorite author of The Artists Way fame) provides the foreword.

Full disclosure, this book brought me to healing tears. I’ve read it and listened to it many times and I had the pleasure of meeting Jacob at his Heal and Create Writer’s event along with SARK. 

Another one of his books that you won’t want to miss is Blessed Are the Weird.

This is one of those secret gems of a book that hardly anybody has heard of but after you read it, you’ll be giving multiple copies away to every creative you know. Rich with real-life examples from working artists and writers, and Priscilla’s long history as a working creative and teacher, I have underlined an idea or suggestion on almost every page.