A few weeks ago I was contacted by Michael Cassidy of Rand Media Co. and asked whether i would like to receive a pre-released copy of “The Skinny On Creativity” for review.

This book is part of a series of publications entitled “The Skinny On”.

To better understand the idea behind this series, let me quote from the introduction to the book:

“In our time-starved and information-overload culture, most of us have far too little time to read. As a result, our understanding of important subjects often tends to float on the surface – without the insights of writings from thinkers and teachers who have spent years studying these subjects.

Our series is intended to address this situation. Our team of readers and researchers has done a ton of homework preparing our books for you. We read everything we could find on the topic at hand and spoke with the experts. Then we mixed in our experiences and distilled what we have learned into this skinny book for your benefit.”

The book “The Skinny on Creativity” is no different.

It is well written in a very clear and concise way.

At first glance I thought the book is too simplistic because of its unique style. However, I quickly understood the book is designed to be perceived differently by each individual who reads it.

I can either read the snippets as they are conveyed and move on quickly or I can pause after reading each notion to ponder and contemplate about it.

In other words, I can read it either very fast or very slowly, depending on what I wish to get out of this book and I absolutely love it. Not to mention that I may want to read it slowly at first but have the option to go through it quickly later on.

Before writing my own book, “Unleashing The Creative Child Within You”, I conducted an extensive research on creativity. I read a ton of books and essays and covered the subject of creativity from A to Z. Therefore the ideas presented in the book The Skinny On Creativity were not new to me, but still I could find a fresh outlook on these ideas by the connections the author made between them and the order he decided to put them on.

I also enjoyed the humor the author injected to the otherwise very theoretical book. It made my reading much more joyful and several times it led me to an entirely different outlook on the subject matter.

In Short

I think this book is perfect for someone who is looking for an extensive overview on the subject of creativity but without having the time for the extensive reading required.

In addition, the wittiness and pithiness of the book are very inspiring and were actually honing my creativity while I was reading it. I kept coming up with new project ideas which is always a delightful characteristic in a book on creativity.

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Have you read any of the “The Skinny On” books? If so, what did you think about them?
Have you read another good book lately that you’d like to recommend? Please share by leaving a comment on this post.

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