More on The Artist's Way

This isn't really a review, since I'm only 1/6th of the way through this book, but I have to say, I absolutely love it.

The book's subtitle is "A Spiritual Path To Higher Creativity," but honestly, it is neither as New Age or as artist-centric as the title might make it sound. In reality, it's a book for people who are, for some reason, finding themselves unable to do something they really, really want to do. Maybe it's the mythical "writer's block," or maybe it's taking up a hobby you've missed for years, or maybe it's quitting your job for one you actually enjoy.

Whatever it is, if you're blocked--especially if you're painfully blocked, I recommend The Artist's Way.

It's certainly not for everybody. As you can see in the reviews, people either love this book or they absolutely loathe it.

Some may find Cameron's tone too dreamy and poetic--if you are such a get-down-to-business type, you probably just get-down-to-business and do it anyway, and don't need the book. But if, perhaps, you know you should get-down-to-business, but can't bring yourself to do so, this book might help restore some of the sense of "play" that is, in the end, what makes any "serious" business worthwhile.

The book--at least so far--could be summed up as the counter to the worldly idea in this quote, taken from the book's margin:

We have been taught to believe that negative equals realistic and positive equals unrealistic. -- Susan Jeffers

This book strives to restore the position of the "positive" as not only realistic, but, ultimately, the only thing worth bothering with.

It's set up as a twelve week course, apparently mirroring an actual twelve week class the author used to teach. The two primary features of the course are "Morning Pages"--three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing about anything you do each morning--and "The Artist's Date"--a date with one's proverbial "inner child" each week, where you do something you know you would enjoy but wouldn't normally have the chance (or allow yourself!) to do.

If all of this seems too "group therapy" for you, you might want to steer clear. But if it sounds intriguing at all, go do a "Look Inside This Book!" thing over at Amazon and see what you think.

Anybody reading ever finish it?