Bossypants

Tina Fey

I consider Tina Fey a big inspiration for my everyday life. I respect her point of view and unique writing style. 30 Rock and SNL are two of my favorite shows. I think it's because I respect the writing so much. I can see the mechanics, but only enough to appreciate them. It's such an important skill to laugh each day, and Tina shows this in her book. She makes me look at my life in a different tone and laugh about it a little more.

02|02|13 – 02|21|13

It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be.

Paul Arden

The title alone has my name all over it. When I first read this book, I was coming back to Chicago from New York and I remember feeling really inspired. This book helped me channel that inspiration towards making things the best they can be.

I ended up reading this book for the second time on a train ride back to my home town. I wanted something light and inspiring to read, and this was it. It's perspective is from an Ad agency, but many of it's little tips and insights can be applied to any creative process. I find that I perform best when I read about how to perform my best. Even if I'm not following the books' message or advice, it makes me deeply consider each move I make and how I can improve. Self criticism is extremely important.

02|01|14 – 02|01|14

World's Shortest Writing Course

Ron Bauer

This book is hilarious. It's a manual from the early 90's on how to write. The funniest thing is, I can use most of what this book has to say about process for a little application I'm building. ( To be released. )

02|08|14 – 02|12|14

The Power of Simplicity:

A Management Guide to Cutting Through the Nonsense and Doing Things Right

Jack Trout

I found this book in a pile of abandoned books left for dead in the parking garage of my old apartment building. These books seemed to belong to a by the books style business student from the early 2000's. I rescued this one, along with a few others.

Most of what this book had to say was common sense, but that was just what it was selling. I found many parallels to my life, which made me happy.

12|15|13 – 01|12|14

How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer

Debbie Millman

My good friend Mike McQuade loaned me this book after we were discussing personal rituals in design.

This lead me to think about practice and presentation

I don't have a calendar on my wall, but I do keep track of the habbits I want to form, and rejoice when I achieve these goals, and writhe when I don't.

I can and will write more about this someday.

12|15|13 – 01|12|14

Outliers

Malcom Gladwell

After reading this book, I really want to change the education system. It seems that possibility lies within everyone, but it's through our opourtunites that we find success. Malcom argues that behind every master is at least 10,000 hours of practice and a slew of opourtunities which made sucess possible.

This realization of hard work matched with privlege inspired me. I have to get out there, and work twice as hard as I currently am, and make sure I'm taking advantage of every opourtunity that comes my way. These are gifts, just for me, to succeed.

I also then felt a little disapointed with much of the world. Why doesn't everyone want to spend 10,000 hours working hard on something? Where are the every man's passions? I feel like there are so many people who just exist. I want to find a way to inspire those people.

It pays to be the outlier, the one who had the opourtunity to shine. Get in tune with your passion, and spend the time it takes to become a master.

01|01|13 – 01|23|13