It’s our 200th post! So first off, thank you to all of you for reading Knock Twice, commenting, sharing posts, and attending our events. You’re awesome! One of the things we want to do more of on the blog is share great, inspiring books, and give them away! Both Erika and I are big readers and believe that books, more than most mediums, have the ability to shift our perspective and invoke change. To start off, we’re giving away a copy of Steal Like an Artist by Ausin Kleon. If you don’t know about Kleon’s work, you’re in for a treat. Find out how you can win at the end of this post.

About the Author

Austin Kleon is best known for his newspaper blackout poems where he takes pages from the New York Times and blacks out all but a few words out with a Sharpie to form poems. I’ve actually bought one of his pieces from 20×200! What I love about Austin is how transparent he is and his story of transitioning to an artist. Be sure to check out his blog for lots of good things!

General Idea

Steal Like an Artist is a manual to help you bring creativity to all aspects of your life. When I initially saw this book, I figured it would be an interesting read, given the author, but not much deeper than that. Perhaps I’ve been jaded by the flood of “how to be creative” books in recent years. To my pleasant surprise, this book turned out to be much much more than that.

It’s divided into 10 chapters, or as the sub title puts it “10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative”. In each chapter there are a few ideas, real world examples, and ways you can implement the larger theme of the chapter into your own life. The writing is clear and to the point, with touches of humor. As a bonus, the book is uniquely designed and is filled with great illustrations. I highly recommend picking up a copy. This is one of the few such books that has visibly affected my decision making after reading it!

Highlights

Climb Your Own Family Tree (p.15)
“Chew on one thinker – writer, artist, activist, role model – you really love. Study everything there is to know about that thinker. Then find three people that thinker loved, and find out everything about them.”

School Yourself (p.19)
“Google everything. I mean everything. Google your dreams, Google your problems. Don’t ask a question before you Google it. You’ll either find the answer or you’ll come up with a better question.”

Start Copying. (p.33)
“Who to copy is easy. Copy your heroes… What to copy is a little bit trickier. Don’t just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes.”

Practice Productive Procrastination (p.65)
“I think it’s good to have a lot of projects going at once so you can bounce between them. When you get sick of one project, move to another, and when you’re sick of that one, move back to the project you left. Practice productive procrastination.”

Win a Copy!

To win, please leave a comment here telling us something you’ve learned or discovered about creativity that you wish your younger self knew. It could be a work tip, a personal rule, or a broader idea, anything really. Our favourite one wins!

If there are enough submissions, we’ll put together a post with the best ones, a sort of Knock Twice readers’ guide to creativity. We’ll accept submissions until this Friday (April 13th).

Looking to buy Steal Like an Artist? Please us our Amazon affiliate link, we’ll get a small percentage at no cost to you!