Artsy Reads Guaranteed to Jump-Start Your Creativity

While I’m of the opinion that every book is a work of art, not all entail or inspire the same level of artistry. The best books have a way of setting you a’dream, whether through their story, construction, information or general mood, or through some blend that’s harder to name. They’re also the titles that linger, the ones you return to when you need a spark—or when you want a thoughtful gift for the creatives in your life. The following titles are such yarns. Some are novels, others are nonfiction and still others defy definition, but all in their own ways offer the kind of inspiration that can conjure the creative muse.

‘My Work’ by Olga Ravn

Since reading it two years ago, there’s no book I recommend more frequently than Ravn’s deeply introspective “novel” My Work. I use the quotes because while it is partially fictional, it also careens between memoir, poetry, essay, correspondence, dialogue and newspaper headlines as it explores the struggles of giving birth, being a wife and creating art in a world that seems to be going crazy. It probes one of the great questions that plagues every artist: how can I balance my art with my responsibilities?

‘Solitary Fitness’ by Charles Salvador Bronson

The book I’ve recommended most frequently over the past decade may come off as a weird choice for a list of the best artsy books. Widely considered the most dangerous prisoner in the U.K. due to his propensity toward violence and hostage-taking, Charles Bronson has spent the majority of the past 50 years in solitary confinement. But he’s also a world fitness champion and celebrated artist who recently adopted the name “Salvador” in honor of his hero, Dali. Solitary Fitness is ostensibly about his prison fitness routine, but spans so much more. From his hallucinatory drawings to motivational advice to tips on building a stronger penis or pelvic floor, it’s a uniquely inspiring read.

‘Blind Spot’ by Teju Cole

Few books crack open the concept of art quite like Teju Cole’s singular fusion of photo essay, diary, prose and poem. From Lagos to New York, Switzerland to Berlin, Capri to Ubud and so on, Cole’s images and words seem to reveal the entirety of human experience, from our most insignificant moments to our grandest sufferings and aspirations. It makes you consider photography and the novel format in entirely new ways and will help push your art in innovative directions.

‘The Moon and Sixpence’ by W. Somerset Maugham

One of Maugham’s lesser-known works, The Moon and Sixpence is not only about the artistic life but portrays it in a singularly vivid manner via the author’s gorgeous descriptions. Its protagonist—whose life is notably similar to notorious artist Paul Gauguin’s—abandons his stable, sensible existence in England to pursue his painterly dreams. The final sequence describing his murals is among the most stunningly beautiful writing you’ll ever read.

‘The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh’

Vincent van Gogh was a pretty good painter and an even better moodist, but he may have missed his true calling: pouring his illumination and misery onto the written page. In his letters to his brother Theo, Van Gogh exposes his deepest vulnerabilities and exaltations along his frustrated quest for artistic satisfaction. There is something almost divine to his soaring language, and any aspiring artist will find solace in his struggles. 

‘I Seem to Be a Verb’ by Buckminster Fuller

What is this book even? Philosophy? An instruction manual for society? A manifesto gone graphic design mad? In I Seem to Be a Verb, renowned architect and systems theorist Buckminster Fuller and his collaborators created one of the most singular works ever published. A cut-and-paste exploration of what it means to be human in the modern era, it’s as creatively uplifting in message as it is creatively disruptive in form.

‘Do the Work’ by Steven Pressfield

Lucky and few are the artists who never encounter resistance on their path to creative realization. In his slim hundred-page tract, novelist Steven Pressfield spurs those of us who are more prone to blockages to overcome that resistance and to sally forth on our way to creative victory. As humorous as it is serious, and insightful as it is playful, Do the Work is essential reading for any artist, or really anyone, seeking hard-earned achievement.

‘Will There Ever Be Another You’ by Patricia Lockwood

Lockwood’s latest novel really nails something particularly troubling about the life of the artist in the post-COVID age. It follows a young woman’s descent into madness as she attempts to write a novel and navigate the personal and social insanities of the early 2020s, all while grappling with the challenges of long COVID. Its protagonist is engaged in an attempt to “write a masterpiece about being confused,” and many are saying that Lockwood herself achieved precisely that.

‘The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman’ by Angela Carter

Angela Carter is a new addition to my reading list, recommended to me by musician Neko Case, and what an excellent, creatively mind-bending addition it was to my bookshelf. Any of Carter’s books will get your imagination flowing, from her updated fairy tales to her more straightforward literature. But I was especially struck by The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, which blends the surrealism of Carrington with the brutality of Burroughs, then sets it against a dystopia that has echoes of Orwell. 

‘Saul Leiter: the Centennial Retrospective’

‘Saul Leiter: the Centennial Retrospective’
To mark the 100th birthday of photographer Saul Leiter, Thames & Hudson has put together an absolutely gorgeous Centennial Retrospective looking over his career. An influential member of the New York school of photography typically associated with the 1940s and ‘50s, Leiter’s lens captures the beauty in ordinary scenes abstracted through his dazzling perspective. This is no mere coffee table book, but a powerful collection that speaks to the everyday art we tend to miss around us.