Sometimes you just need to get away from your desk and plunge into a book. But the tricky thing? The book you’re plunging into has to be attention grabbing but not so involved that you get sucked in and have to pry yourself from a chapter and race back to your desk before the Hounds of Time Keeping swoop down on you like those awesome Ring Wraiths from Lord of the Rings. <cue Blacklight getting excited I remember anything from Tolkein and then realizing it’s because the Ring Wraiths wanted to get get get stupid little Frodo Baggins…>

So what is the reader to do? Well, Mason Currey’s Daily Rituals: How Artists Work just might fit the bill. It’s chock full of interesting facts about creatives and best of all, you can gobble up a few of the profiles and get back to your desk in plenty of time to grab a fresh cup of tea. What kind of creatives and rituals are we talking about? Hmm…for the creatives how about Twyla Tharp, Albert Einstein, the god of the Internet Nikola Tesla, my nemeses William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville and Charles Dickens, Uncle “Stevie” and more. And the rituals? Before you envision Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates making sacrifices in front of their computers and then cranking out a 1000+ page novel before lunch, dial your brain back a notch. The daily rituals in question are how our creatives get their work done. Given bulk of his usual offerings it does make sense that Stephen King writes every single day without fail. And even though I’m not a fan of poetry, I have to give Wallace Stevens some love for waking up early so he could read for two hours before going to work.

For people who love to know more about the creative process or even little tidbits about the famous who deserve their fame Daily Rituals: How Artists Work is a must read. The writing it interesting enough that even if you don’t care for (or in my case loathe) a particular creative in general you’ll read the few pages devoted to them. I don’t think I can get up any earlier for work like Wallace Stevens but Daily Rituals: How Artists Work has given me greater understanding and new ideas about approaching the creative process.