Name: Daily Rituals
ISBN: 9780307273604

Mason Currey

From Beethoven and Kafka to George Sand, Picasso and Agatha Christie, this compilation of letters, diaries and interviews reveals the profound fusion of discipline and dissipation through which the artistic temperament is allowed to evolve, recharge and emerge. 20,000 first printing.

How Artists Work

Daily Rituals

sina (she/her) 

Rina

"I'm always in a hurry to get going, though in general dislike starting the day" Beauvoir told The Paris Review in 1965. 

From Marx to Murakami and Beethoven to Bacon, 'Daily Rituals' examines the working routines of more than a 160 of the greatest philosophers, writers, composers and artists ever to have lived. Filled with fascinating insights on the mechanics of genius and entertaining stories of the personalities behind it, it is irresistibly addictive and utterly inspiring

How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work

Some truly fascinating portraits, that make you feel more human, because these highly creative people still struggled and had a hard time. Many of them used large portions of drugs, had peculiar habits, and were always trying to push themselves past their own laziness in some cases. Even the prolific ones were sometimes only aided by copious amounts of substances. I found some of the portraits fascinating. I wanted more from many of them and less from those that seemed to be a little more obscure or plainly not interesting. A simple books with a simple premise, but surprisingly fun to think about the routines, vices, and habits of people one imagines were highly focused and driven, which was not always the case. For the writers it's particularly encouraging to know that many of them worked in small burst, rarely putting their head to the ground to write at very long stretches, consistency in some manner was usually the key. 

BC Hark

Brandy

Got about 2/3 of the way through and didn't finish because it got repetitive & uninteresting. Would be an interesting book to pick up & leaf through on occasion. A good bathroom reader. But for reading straight through, which I had to do since I checked this out from the library, it was a slog. 

I had really high hopes for this book, as I loved the introduction (particularly the Kafka quote) but was not able to take much from the book. Other than, boy, it helps to be rich if you want to be a creative. Which I was well fucking aware of already.

Shaun Clark

Listened to this an Audiobook as recommended by Tim Ferriss, who's republished this through Audible.

Although it's a simple premise - a collection from the author's blog about the daily habits of various artists - it's well done, interesting and inspiring.

Even if you're a person - rather than a 'struggling artist' looking for inspiration - it can give you the proverbial 'kick up the asp' to get a bit of structure into your day. 

Whilst a lot of the subjects share similar routines, it never gets repetitive to hear them - in fact, it shows how much can be achieved in each working day (or night) in some cases.

Note - I try to avoid 5 star reviews, so this rating is the highest I would give for any book, so it's highly recommended :-)

Sarah Vaughan

An interesting read. I didn't get through the entire compilation because it started to feel like I was being bombarded with information, but I liked the premise of this book: what time do most artists wake up and go to bed, how long do they work, how do they occupy their time when not working on their art,
Etc. I particularly enjoyed the pieces on writers. I have even been inspired to commit to rising earlier in order to be more productive, although that hasn't happened yet. We'll see how that goes.

Daily Rituals How Artists Work

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