The instant #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller“A must read for anyone hoping to live a creative life… I dare you not to be inspired to be brave, to be free, and to be curious.” —PopSugarFrom the worldwide bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and City of Girls: the path to the vibrant, fulfilling life you’ve dreamed of. Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from … life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.
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An interesting view of creativity and ideas and how they propagate.
It’s not eat pray love by far
Elizabeth Gilbert has done a tremendous job of capturing what it means to harness creativity and doing something with it. I love everything she says and writes. Her words resonate on a deep level for me. For anyone that’s looking for inspiration and motivation to see through ideas or projects to fruition, this is the book.
Magic–creativity. It’s all good and so is this book. I am really enjoying reading it.
We’ve all been dazzled by its mystical charm. The exact card in our mind’s eye is plucked from an otherwise ordinary deck. A metaphorical, or maybe literal, rabbit is pulled from the hat. Magic involves witnessing or experiencing something that is nearly, if not impossible, to explain. But there must be a reason and we have an undying obsession as humans to understand.
What does this have to do with a book on creative thinking? As it turns out, a lot.
I’ve spent decades of my life in the analytical word, doing my best to make sense of what’s happening around me, allowing logic and reason to guide my path through life. My mind was convinced there was a formulaic approach to mapping out what we desire, charting a well-defined path, and following it to our destination. And there is… for some things. For other things, though, could there be a different, and dare I say, better way?
We’ve all been greeted by those sparks of genius. Some occur in a flash as a split second of divine inspiration. Others obstinately remain with us, insistent on being heard and paid attention to. This is magic. No, this is big magic. It doesn’t make sense… where it comes from, how it finds us, or why it chooses us. But it does, and it’s an opportunity for us to do one of the things we most crave as human beings. Create.
I sit here, typing this review with my morning cup of coffee, and know this book will have a special place reserved for it on my bookshelf. While decades of my life may have been consumed by logic, most of the last one has been filled with a trust and belief that we don’t need to understand everything. We only need to accept what’s presented to us and allow ourselves to be enveloped, like a magic cloak, by its charm.
Liz Gilbert’s passion and authenticity shine through in this brilliant offering. It isn’t pretentious or preachy. It’s real. It might feel otherworldly and supernatural at times, but there hasn’t been a book I’ve read in a long time that has felt more grounded, motivating, and inspiring when it comes to embracing the creative spirit inside us.
The thoughts presented by Liz make perfect sense, and they don’t. We must hold and let go. We need to care deeply and not care at all. The creative world is filled with these paradoxes that can cripple us if we allow it. But there is another way, and Ms. Gilbert shows us one of those ways. Her way. Her conversational tone is lighthearted and carefree in one breath but deeply emotional and thought-provoking in the next. But always, it is real. I found myself involuntarily responding to her thoughts, as if the physical pages could receive my words and somehow transport them to her ears. Truth be told, there’s a small part of me that now believes this is possible. Why not? It’s a question I found myself asking and answering repeatedly with an affirmative nod. I devoured these words as though I was sharing a cup of coffee with Liz over a causal conversation in a local café.
Her words and ideas add depth and meaning to those nagging questions. Where did this idea come from? How did it find me? And why did it choose me? The bite-sized nuggets of wisdom lasting only a few pages each are perfect for consuming on those days when you need a jolt of caffeine for the creative soul.
Anyone who knows me (and you probably all know me a little better after this lengthy review) appreciates my love for the power of stories, the written word, and the emotions layered inside them. For me, a story is caffeine for the soul. But sometimes, you need a cup of coffee earlier in the day that inspires you to create that story, mold that clay, choreograph that dance, or compose that symphony. This book is that cup of coffee.
Things we experience in everyday life sometime go against everything that is traditionally accepted (perhaps like the length and tone of this review, being more like an emotional barometer than a review of the information contained in the book). But this review feels right to me, just as it is. And that, my friends, is how and where this review arrives at its end for me, and hopefully serves as a beginning for you.
Listen to those quiet whispers. Pay attention to them. Act on them and go create something. Anything and everything you create is beautiful. It’s a part of who you are, and a higher power is conspiring to help, if you give it permission. I hope this review, in all its atypical and nonconforming composition, is one of those quiet whispers. Believe in magic. No, wait… believe in Big Magic.
I loved this book!
It resonated with me so deeply. For anyone engaged in a creative pursuit…or wanting to start one…this is a must-read!
This book represents a very real and relatable case for looking both within as well as outside of ourselves for inspiration and direction.
I love this book. I’m a new writer, working on my second book with an unedited terrible first draft waiting for me to attack it. If you are a writer and struggling with any sort of fear or self-doubt, I highly recommend this book. It’s probably not going to tell you anything you don’t already know (perseverance, work through the fear, it takes discipline) but the way she says it just made me so happy. There’s no other way I can put it, this book made me happy. It’s not a craft book, and you won’t find any publishing advice. It’s more of an inspirational book about being creative for creative’s sake. And how to live that life to the fullest. The way she describes how ideas come to people and the way she view how creativity works is so full of joy. I honestly got an image in my head of my two main characters sitting next to me on a couch, waiting for me to write their next scene. And I really wanted to write it, even through the fear. So if you want some good advice on letting go and accepting creativity with all the struggles and fear and joy and happiness, I would read this book.
I listened to the audio book of Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (who, by the way, is an AMAZING narrator. Good Gracious). I was blown away.
Thoughtful. Insightful. Life-changing.
A must-read for creatives and anyone who has ever wanted to step outside of his or her box and stay on the outskirts for a while.
Inspiring book on finding your creative path.
I didn’t really know what this book was going to be about. It was the book club’s choice for this month, so I decided to have a go. I liked it far more than I expected to. I would recommend it to anyone who regularly pursues a creative interest. In fact, when I got a copy and read it, I liked it so much that I bought a copy for a friend, who also enjoyed it so much that she too bought a copy for her friend.
I’m not sure I understand the cover, which just looks like splashing various paint to me. The title does make sense after reading the book, but based on just “big magic,” I don’t know that I would have picked it up if not for the club picking it. I do enjoy reading books about writing motivation though. The book was well edited. Interestingly, the book talks about editing something so that it’s “good enough,” and figuring out when to stop hunting for every possible error. (*cough* Not that I’ve ever done that. *cough*) One of the greatest lessons in the book though is the hard truth of living a creative life: That you should quit, unless you can’t.
This book does have me interested in the other works by this author. It did inspire me to keep writing. Some of the observations of the book impressed me because I’ve never thought about them before. It’s very informative and entertaining, and it’s clear that Elizabeth is an authority on the subject. The lessons absolutely apply to my own life as a writer. I’m sure my fellow writers would also enjoy reading this. The entire book was clear and easy to follow. The author’s passion for writing and staying creative absolutely came through. I feel that I benefited from reading this book.
In the “Courage” section, the list of fears, I nodded along several times. “Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them,” was a powerful quote included in this book (also in the “Courage” section). I don’t know how, exactly, it might apply with chronic illness or family matters, but there it is. The book mentions that projects that don’t turn out well can be thought of as just creative experiments — what a freeing idea that is! The story in the book about the novel that really wanted to be written, the one that Ann ends up doing, that’s some serious motivation to write when the Muse comes to call. Very powerful.
Good enough and out there now is better than probably perfect but never out there… that’s a lesson I should make my mantra and say daily or something. Pretty good books can sell and be read. Books that are never published aren’t selling or giving themselves to the world.
The lesson about needing to love writing (or whatever) with your whole heart, the good and the bad parts, that’s an important one. I think that’s what weeds out most people. For example, during the #AtoZChallenge in April or NaNoWriMo in November, a lot of people start and make it for the first week. But, by the end of those months, it’s only the people who loved doing it enough to keep at it despite the time consumption and dozens of things that inevitably go wrong for anyone who makes plans.
In a post-apocalyptic world, are writers useful? The book suggests that the fact that creativity exists is a gift, proof we are doing well. But I think the worse things are, the more people need the distraction of entertainment. (And if there’s no more power or Internet, books and storytellers would go up in value.) That’s the one part of the book I disagreed with. Perhaps my ego just wants to feel valuable so I have a fun reason to go on that isn’t wholly reliant on another individual?
Being loved by nature and having a place in the world, mentioned in the “Trust” section, perhaps that’s a more natural concept for me because of my Lenni-Lenape upbringing. It does seem to be one of the things that separated, or exiled, me from the more “civilized” children. Also in the “Trust” section was the bit about the Martyr and Trickster, which made me think of Batman and the Joker. As for the story of the Court Lobster, that’s sort of why I decided to self-publish my first novel. (It was never going to wear the right costume, and I wasn’t going to change the mythology just because others didn’t know the legends I do. So I went “Court Lobster.”)
the author challenges the reader to think differently about ideas and creativity, using her own story to weave the threads of magic together, inspiring!
Just loved it….will read again
As a professional artist, I can say that no book has paralleled my own experience as closely as this book has. I loved every second of it. I bought it and the audiobook and try to read or listen to it every 3-6months. If you’re a creative, or just have a creative itch- this book is for you.
This book changed up my whole concept of creativity! As a result, I am doing my art and writing like never before. I recommend this to all creatives.
Liz Gilbert brings her philosophy on life to the art of writing and creativity as a whole. Best advice – I now ask for the inspiration gods to sit down with me…. and most often they do.
Enjoyed this book very much. Good “food for thought.”
A wonderful and inspiring way for artists to view the world.
This book simply gave me permission to create, explore creativity with real expectations, and funeralized some myths in my head.