Editorial Reviews
Review
“Big Magic is a celebration of a creative life…Gilbert’s love of creativity is infectious, and there’s a lot of great advice in this sunny book…Gilbert doesn’t just call for aspiring artists to speak their truth, however daffy that may appear to others; she is showing them how.” —Washington Post
“In [Gilbert’s] first foray into full-on self-help [she] shares intimate glimpses into the life of a world-famous creative, complete with bouts of paralyzing fear and frustration, in an attempt to coax the rest of us into walking through the world just a little bit braver.” —Elle
“The Eat, Pray, Love author demystifies the tricky business of creativity. We’re all ears.” —Cosmopolitan
“Elizabeth Gilbert is my new spirit animal… I have profoundly changed my approach to creating since I read this book.” —Huffington Post
“Gilbert leads readers through breaking out of their own creative ruts, finding fulfillment, and facing fear while finding balance between our spiritual and pragmatic beings in her forth coming book. Yes, please.” —Bustle
“Big Magic will resonate with writers and artists who find the process of producing work to be particularly painful…Through anecdotes about her creative failures and resourcefulness, as well as those other artists, Gilbert encourages readers to pursue a creative life ‘that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.” —Daily Beast
“Gilbert demystifies the creative process, examining the practices of great artists to shed light on finding inspiration in the every day.” —Harper’s Bazaar
“Part inspiration, part how-to, it offers up both a philosophy of creativity and advice for living a more creatively fulfilling life.”—Fast Company
“Big Magic tackles the challenges of living the creative life…Reading it is a little like having a coach by your side, cheering on your efforts – whatever they are – candidly and selflessly.” –Christian Science Monitor
“Gilbert [writes] with sincerity and humility about the joy that creativity has given her… If you enjoyed Eat Pray Love, if you are drawn to self-help or inspirational books, or if you just like to bask in another person’s positive glow, you’ll love Big Magic.” –Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Big Magic wants to help its readers live creatively…[Gilbert believes] creativity is inside all of us, it should be expressed, and it is not selfish or crazy or foolish to do so – it is in fact the best way to live a satisfying life…[Big Magic] constitutes good advice…[in a voice that’s] charming, personable, self-aware, jokey, conversational….[and] that Gilbert does so well.” —New York Times Book Review
“A lucid and luminous inquiry into the relationship between human beings and the mysteries of the creative experience… What makes her book so immensely helpful is precisely its lived and living nature…wholly electrifying.” —Brainpickings
“Gilbert tackles heavy, sensitive subject matter but keeps it light, making what’s essentially a self-help book feel like a good talk with a friend rather than a sermon.” —Associated Press
“Transformative.” —Flavorwire
“Gilbert’s trademark warmth and enthusiasm abounds…wise…[and] pointed.” —Boston Globe
“Part pat-on-the-back, part slap-in-the-face, [Big Magic is] a permission slip for readers to stop making excuses and get to work… a fresh and modern surprise that fans of her work will relish.” —Wichita Eagle
“Funny. Insightful. Honest. Irreverent…But, of course, most of us have read Gilbert before and these qualities find their way into all of her works. The particular form of magic in Big Magic comes in a very unusual wrapping: hope and love…Big Magic read[s] like a devotional. Like a love letter to the earnest artist inside most of our hearts.” —Books and Whatnot
“Distinctly refreshing.” —TED Ideas Blog
“Big Magic will leave you feeling inspired to be curious, brave, free, and, most of all, creative.” -Lauren Conrad
“Full of chatty advice, pep talks, amusing and inspiring stories…Gilbert’s idea of living creatively may incorporate touches of magic, but she’s practical in the extreme.” —Miami Herald
“In her signature conversational style, both sassy and serious, Gilbert invokes high- and low-brow cultural references and recommends we channel our inner trickster… [Her] manifesto is a book to read through quickly, and then start again to discover any big magic you may have missed.” – KMUW
“Big Magic ripples with Gilbert’s enthusiasm, choice metaphor, and humor.” -LitHub
“Gilbert will completely change the way you think about the creative process.”—Indienext
“The writing here is so friendly and funny that Gilbert’s perspective on creative living goes down like lemonade in summer.” —BookPage
“From the deeply self-aware, poetically gifted author of Eat, Pray, Love comes… the best nonfiction book I’ve read in years. For anyone who’s ever struggled with feeling worthy to express themselves through art, or been discouraged by the absence of inspiration, I’m not being hyperbolic when I say this book might just change your life.” —Mind Body Green
“Inspirational… Big Magic provides a guidebook for anyone wanting to live a more creative life. You don’t have to be an artist to get value out of this book; it is for anyone who wants to live with more joy, love, happiness, and abundance in their world.”—YAHOO! SHOPPING
“Gilbert, author of the wildly successful memoir “Eat, Pray, Love” and a successful novelist (“The Signature of All Things”) offers her prescriptions for unlocking the creativity within.” —Seattle Times
“Whatever your artistic pursuit, you’ll nod in agreement as Elizabeth Gilbert reflects on the elusive, frustrating and sometimes comically strange process of creativity. Thoughtful and funny, Gilbert makes an excellent case for doing whatever it takes to unlock your inner artist and find more joy in life.” —Woman’s Day
“What Gilbert’s offering her fans…[is] permission to be creative…[She] is interested in the importance of creativity for the individual’s soul…When you hear the people who want to create, and the gratitude they feel toward [her], you can’t help feeling that she’s healed them—that she has, in fact, become the kind of guru she once sought.” —The New Yorker, on the “Magic Lessons” podcast series
“The latest from Gilbert is all about you—that’s 268 pages of practical advice for tapping into your own creativity… Consider her your own personal life coach.”—Marie Claire
“A must read for anyone hoping to live a creative life… I dare you not to be inspired to be brave, to be free, and to be curious.” —PopSugar
“Elizabeth Gilbert is an exceptionally gifted author…and this book is remarkable…. It is so densely packed with pearls of wisdom that I read it once for pleasure, and then again to unpack and outline the text just like I used to do in college…A must-read for anyone on the creative spectrum, from those who don’t think there is a creative bone in their body to those who make a living from their artistic expression.” –Yakima Herald
“Reading Big Magic is the next best thing to hiring Elizabeth Gilbert [as your] coach.”—PARNASSUS BOOKS
“A joyful ride through the enigmatic jungle of creative existence… [Big Magic] is not just about the production of artistic works but about building a life that nurtures the creative being in all of us.”—CREATIV Magazine
“Big Magic [is ]… fearless of voice and heart-opening in authenticity; in short, a book worthy of its name.” —Literary Inklings
“A conversational, intimate glimpse into Gilbert’s process and philosophy, as personable as a confab over coffee… essential reading for anyone who wants to live a larger life, filled with more ideas, more projects, and more fulfillment…Big Magic is powerful stuff.” –Barnes & Noble Blog
“A book-length meditation on inspiration.” —Newsday
“Whether you long to write the great American novel or you just want to be more present and mindful in your daily life, you can find plenty of inspiration in this self-help tome… … the can-do, optimistic tone makes for an uplifting read.” –All You Magazine
“[Gilbert will] make you feel giddy about creation.” –Medium
“Gilbert mines her writer’s career to provide unique, inspiring and constructive insights on how to navigate the wild ride that is the creative life… Her charming nuggets are wise, comforting and ultimately encouraging.” –About.com
“Gilbert offers helpful suggestions for outwitting writer’s block and perfectionism…and lets a tart sense of humor emerge.” –Columbus Dispatch
“Anyone living with some manifestation of writer’s block (or any other artistic variant of such affliction) will find [Gilbert’s] sage advice is effectively a worthwhile kick in the butt… Without the smallest hint of narcissism, the mega-bestselling author shares the pinnacles and pitfalls of failure and success and how to wrangle the criticism, inside and out.”—Steamboat Pilot & Today
“Gilbert sweetly yet powerfully nudges readers to release fear, summon courage and allow the ‘strange jewels’ hidden within each of us to emerge and shine. The end result is the ‘big magic’… Engaging storytelling mixed with personal anecdotes and astute insights make Big Magic a rewarding, motivating and delightful read.” —Sucess Magazine
“There’s nothing hippie-dippy about Gilbert’s raw, honest, and downright hilarious observations of her own creative plight…This isn’t a How-To guide for creative living; this is the story of how one woman simply figured things out for herself, and learned how to live in harmony with her own creative soul. All can find a kind of solemn peace and reassurance in her words.” -Everyday eBook
“A transformative nonfiction treatise on creativity…Filled with her signature humor, big-heartedness, wild vulnerability and wisdom, Gilbert delivers a vibrant and inspirational book.” –About Town Magazine
“A booster that will help you out of any rut.” –Kansas City Star
“The author of Eat Pray Love, who has already changed so many lives, now looks to change thinking on creativity.” –The New York Daily News
“Worth a read for any artist struggling for some peace and quiet in a head bursting with creativity.”
– Bustle, Included in “9 Books To Help You Find Inner Peace”
“Some might call Elizabeth Gilbert by the name Queen Midas … Everything she touches seems to turn to gold. A rare gift, this book acknowledges difficulty, but empowers its readers to transcend it in the name of the beautiful mysteries of existence.” —WNC Woman Magazine
“A magnificent guide to how to be creative…[and] a heartfelt gem… I simultaneously wanted to quickly turn the page to see what was next while savoring the advice on each page… Gilbert is determined to guide you into the light. Go with her.” —Jersey Journal
“Irresistible…If creativity is something you value highly—both in others and as fundamental to your own existence—you should find much to love in Big Magic, whether or not you typically gravitate toward creativity guides.” —Chapter 16
“A non-fiction tour-de force…pragmatic, rational, and wholly convincing.” —Reader’s Digest UK
“A treasure map to unleash your most creative and expressive life.” –Marie TV
“Big Magic seeks to both inspire you and strip you of any excuse to not pursue your creative interests…[it’s] passionate, down-to-earth and bursting with Gilbert’s obvious love for the subject matter and her readers… a delight to read.” –Pop Mythology
“An empathetic and inspiring guide to mustering the courage to live a creative life. … Nearly anyone who picks up this self-help manual should finish it feeling inspired, even if only to dream of a life without limits.” —Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“Gilbert serves as an enthusiastic coach for readers who want more out of life. Highly recommended.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“Gilbert’s wise and motivating book of encouragement and advice will induce readers not only to follow specific artistic dreams but also to live life more creatively, fully, and contentedly.” – Booklist
“The sincerity, grace, and flashes of humor that characterize [Gilbert’s] writing and insights should appeal to a wider audience…warmly inspirational.” —Kirkus
About the Author
Elizabeth Gilbert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Magic, Eat Pray Love, and The Signature of All Things, as well as several other internationally bestselling books of fiction and nonfiction. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her latest novel, City of Girls, comes out in June, 2019.
Jack Gilbert was a great poet, but if you’ve never heard of him, don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault. He never much cared about being known. But I knew about him, and I loved him dearly from a respectful distance, so let me tell you about him.
Jack Gilbert was born in Pittsburgh in 1925 and grew up in the midst of that city’s smoke, noise, and industry. He worked in factories and steel mills as a young man, but was called from an early age to write poetry. He answered the call without hesitation. He became a poet the way other men become monks: as a devotional practice, as an act of love, and as a lifelong commitment to the search for grace and transcendence. I think this is probably a very good way to become a poet. Or to become anything, really, that calls to your heart and brings you to life.
Jack could’ve been famous, but he wasn’t into it. He had the talent and the charisma for fame, but he never had the interest. His first collection, published in 1962, won the prestigious Yale Younger Poets prize and was nominated for the Pulitzer. What’s more, he won over audiences as well as critics, which is not an easy feat for a poet in the modern world. There was something about him that drew people in and kept them captivated. He was handsome, passionate, sexy, brilliant on stage. He was a magnet for women and an idol for men. He was photographed for Vogue, looking gorgeous and romantic. People were crazy about him. He could’ve been a rock star.
Instead, he disappeared. He didn’t want to be distractedby too much commotion. Later in life he reported that he had found his fame boring—not because it was immoral or corrupting, but simply because it was exactly the same thing every day. He was looking for something richer, more textured, more varied. So he dropped out. He went to live in Europe and stayed there for twenty years. He lived for a while in Italy, a while in Denmark, but mostly he lived in a shepherd’s hut on a mountaintop in Greece. There, he contemplated the eternal mysteries, watched the light change, and wrote his poems in private. He had his love stories, his obstacles, his victories. He was happy. He got by somehow, making a living here and there. He needed little. He allowed his name to be forgotten.
After two decades, Jack Gilbert resurfaced and publishedanother collection of poems. Again, the literary world fellin love with him. Again, he could have been famous. Again,he disappeared—this time for a decade. This would be hispattern always: isolation, followed by the publication ofsomething sublime, followed by more isolation. He was likea rare orchid, with blooms separated by many years. Henever promoted himself in the least. (In one of the few interviewshe ever gave, Gilbert was asked how he thoughthis detachment from the publishing world had affected hiscareer. He laughed and said, “I suppose it’s been fatal.”)
The only reason I ever heard of Jack Gilbert was that, quite late in his life, he returned to America and—for motives I will never know—took a temporary teaching position in the creative writing department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The following year, 2005, it happened that I took exactly the same job. (Around campus,they started jokingly calling the position “the Gilbert Chair.”) I found Jack Gilbert’s books in my office—the office that had once been his. It was almost like the room was still warm from his presence. I read his poems and was overcome by their grandeur, and by how much his writing reminded me of Whitman. (“We must risk delight,” he wrote. “We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.”)
He and I had the same surname, we’d held the same job, we had inhabited the same office, we had taught many ofthe same students, and now I was in love with his words; naturally enough, I became deeply curious about him. I asked around: Who was Jack Gilbert?
Students told me he was the most extraordinary man they’d ever encountered. He had seemed not quite of this world, they said. He seemed to live in a state of uninterrupted marvel, and he encouraged them to do the same. He didn’t so much teach them how to write poetry, they said, but why: because of delight. Because of stubborn gladness. He told them that they must live their most creative lives as a means of fighting back against the ruthless furnace of this world.
Most of all, though, he asked his students to be brave. Without bravery, he instructed, they would never be able to realize the vaulting scope of their own capacities. Without bravery, they would never know the world as richly as it longs to be known. Without bravery, their lives would remain small—far smaller than they probably wanted their lives to be.
I never met Jack Gilbert myself, and now he is gone—he passed away in 2012. I probably could’ve made it a personal mission to seek him out and meet him while he was living, but I never really wanted to. (Experience has taught me to be careful of meeting my heroes in person; it can be terribly disappointing.) Anyway, I quite liked the way he lived inside my imagination as a massive and powerful presence, built out of his poems and the stories I’d heard about him. So I decided to know him only that way—through my imagination. And that’s where he remains for me to this day: still alive inside me, completely internalized, almost as though I dreamed him up.
But I will never forget what the real Jack Gilbert told somebody else—an actual flesh-and-blood person, a shy University of Tennessee student. This young woman recounted to me that one afternoon, after his poetry class, Jack had taken her aside. He complimented her work, then asked what she wanted to do with her life. Hesitantly, she admitted that perhaps she wanted to be a writer.
He smiled at the girl with infinite compassion and asked, “Do you have the courage? Do you have the courage to bring forth this work? The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say yes.”
So this, I believe, is the central question upon which all creative living hinges: Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?
Look, I don’t know what’s hidden within you. I have no way of knowing such a thing. You yourself may barely know, although I suspect you’ve caught glimpses. I don’t know your capacities, your aspirations, your longings, your secret talents. But surely something wonderful is sheltered inside you. I say this with all confidence, because I happen to believe we are all walking repositories of buried treasure.I believe this is one of the oldest and most generous tricks the universe plays on us human beings, both for its own amusement and for ours: The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.
The hunt to uncover those jewels—that’s creative living.
The courage to go on that hunt in the first place—that’s what separates a mundane existence from a more enchanted one.
The often surprising results of that hunt—that’s what I call Big Magic.
L Blair –
“Are you considering being a creative person? Too late, you already are one,” Gilbert asserts. In Big Magic, living a creative life means living a life driven by curiosity over fear and this life is accessible to all who seek it. She breaks down creativity into five essential ingredients: courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, and trust. Whether readers believe in a magical world or not, her description of ideas, why they choose us, and when and why they leave is inspiring to no end and her roadmap through the twists, turns, and potential pitfalls of creativity are applicable to all who dare to venture on their own creative journey.Gilbert tackles our biggest creative fears and inner demons head-on with delicious humor, wit, and grace. She allows fear a spacious spot in the car on our creative road trip, but never allows it to give us directions and certainly not take the driver’s seat. Time and again, she effectively and effortlessly silences our inner critic on such universal experiences as: worrying about what others think of us and our creations, bowing to perfectionism instead of completion, evaluating our art as low or high, as brilliant or a disaster, the struggle to declare ourselves worthy of living a creative life, the desire to be fearless or passionate when all we need is courage and curiosity, and much more. She also explores various paradoxes of creativity: the desire for permission and the fact that we never needed it to begin with, that creativity takes persistent hard work on our part and also moments of divine inspiration that come from something else entirely, that no creation is entirely original and yet authentic expressions are always original, and the ultimate paradox: that our creative expression must be the most important thing in the world and it also must not matter at all.Written in easy to digest, bite-size chapters, readers will feel as if they’re chatting over a glass of wine with their amusing and insightful bestie, Liz, as she masterfully weaves together numerous stories from her personal and professional life with hard-earned creative wisdom, always with an endearing self-awareness that at times borders on self-deprecation, and with a charm that is nearly flirtatious. The lessons are so powerful and relatable that if one were to learn this much about their creative life in a year of therapy, they could consider it a great investment. Big Magic ultimately provides readers with the necessary courage and inspiration to live bigger, happier, and more interesting lives, coaxing out of us our own unique hidden treasures.– Lisa Blair, MA
Christine Nolfi –
We are all creators in one way or another, and Elizabeth Gilbert demystifies the process with joy, empathy and wit. Big Magic is a must-read for everyone wishing to live a more creative, inquisitive and fulfilling life. Don’t forget to buy an extra copy of the book for your favorite college or trade school graduate, the relative launching a business, or the friend in need of an emotional boost.
Marlene J. Geary –
I quite enjoyed this. Conversational, practical, unashamed. This is Elizabeth Gilbert’s approach to being a writer. The “Creative Living Beyond Fear” part of the title is a bit off, but I suppose one could apply that in the sense of “even if you’re afraid, practice your art anyway.”It doesn’t feel like new-age schlock.Side note: I wasn’t a fan of Eat, Pray, Love. I mostly enjoyed Italy. Then I got to India and realized it was the same thing in a different location. And then I got to Bali and stopped. Couldn’t finish.On the order of being truly alive: From page 10: “She asked herself when was the last time she’d felt truly light, joyous, and— yes— creative in her own skin.”Practical, from page 22: “If your goal in life is to become fearless, then I believe you’re already on the wrong path, because the only truly fearless people I’ve ever met were straight-up sociopaths and a few exceptionally reckless three-year-olds— and those aren’t good role models for anyone.”Her theory on ideas, page 34-35: “I believe that our planet is inhabited not only by animals and plants and bacteria and viruses, but also by ideas. Ideas are a disembodied, energetic life-form. They are completely separate from us, but capable of interacting with us— albeit strangely. Ideas have no material body, but they do have consciousness, and they most certainly have will. Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest. And the only way an idea can be made manifest in our world is through collaboration with a human partner. It is only through a human’s efforts that an idea can be escorted out of the ether and into the realm of the actual.”Grace, from page 75: “Whether I am touched by grace or not, I thank creativity for allowing me to engage with it at all.”Authenticity, from pp. 97-98: “Anyhow, the older I get, the less impressed I become with originality. These days, I’m far more moved by authenticity. Attempts at originality can often feel forced and precious, but authenticity has quiet resonance that never fails to stir me. Just say what you want to say, then, and say it with all your heart. Share whatever you are driven to share.”Higher education at incredible dollar cost with little return, from page 103: “But I worry that what students of the arts are often seeking in higher education is nothing more than proof of their own legitimacy— proof that they are for real as creative people, because their degree says so.”Believing in yourself, from page 108: “So take your insecurities and your fears and hold them upside down by their ankles and shake yourself free of all your cumbersome ideas about what you require (and how much you need to pay) in order to become creatively legitimate. Because I’m telling you that you are already creatively legitimate, by nature of your mere existence here among us.”On enjoying being an artist, from pp. 118-119: “I believe that enjoying your work with all your heart is the only truly subversive position left to take as a creative person these days.”A reaction to the commentary on the pointlessness of art, from page 128: “The fact that I get to spend my life making objectively useless things means that I don’t live in a postapocalyptic dystopia. It means I am not exclusively chained to the grind of mere survival. It means we still have enough space left in our civilization for the luxuries of imagination and beauty and emotion— and even total frivolousness.”The wholeness of our connection to the earth, from page 203: “Without that sense of relationship, Robin warns her students, they are missing out on something incredibly important: They are missing out on their potential to become cocreators of life. As Robin puts it, “The exchange of love between earth and people calls forth the creative gifts of both. The earth is not indifferent to us, but rather calling for our gifts in return for hers— the reciprocal nature of life and creativity.” Or, to put it more simply: Nature provides the seed; man provides the garden; each is grateful for the other’s help.And her sense of wonder, from pp. 250-251: “As long as I’m still moving in that direction— toward wonder— then I know I will always be fine in my soul, which is where it counts.”
Irina Mishina –
I generally find all Liz’s talks on creativity rather inspirational. This book just combines all her views on the subject. I just warn you: her perception of the creative process is rather mystical.
Bookphile –
Honestly, there’s nothing revolutionary in this book as far as what Gilbert is saying. She hasn’t found some magical new formula for unlocking your creativity. Instead, what she has done is create a dialog, as if you were sitting down to coffee with a friend and confessing that you really wanted to be creative but… Gilbert deals with the variety of things that could follow that “but”, and she pulls apart each and every one.Will everyone appreciate this book? Probably not. Gilbert does slay some pretty sacred cows, including the notion of the “tortured” artist, but I think she makes a very compelling case for all the cows she slays. The bottom line of this book, really, is do you want to be a creative person because you want the sense of accomplishment and transcendence that creativity can inspire, or do you want to be a creative person because you’re hoping to make millions and be lauded by the masses? If it’s the second, Gilbert basically tells you that you need not apply, and I agree with her. Creativity may pay off monetarily or in the form of social approbation, or it may not, but if all you really want is to create, who cares? Gilbert holds up all the fears that commonly hold people back and says, “So what?”While I’m not a religious person, I got where she was going by likening creativity to a sort of religious calling. As she says, she doesn’t advocate for people moving out to a mountain and living a life of solitary devotion to creativity–unless that’s your thing, in which case you should do it. Instead, she’s advocating for creativity as a form of not just self-expression, but as a way for people to make something beautiful solely for the sake of making something beautiful. As she says, it’s both essential and non-essential. At heart, I think that’s what makes us human: that we create things that aren’t necessary merely because we like the look of them, or the sound of them, or the taste of them, or the way they feel when we wear them. It’s in the act of creating–even if our creation is bad or misunderstood or unloved–that we are able to get outside of our own heads for a bit. We can forget about our mundane worries and struggles and we can experience moments of pure joy.Not that she’s saying that all this can come about without some fear and struggle and some sense of pain. What she advises is that we learn to live with these things without allowing them to control us. I know this seems simplistic, but she does such a great job of laying out how to avoid being controlled by your fears. What she’s revealing here is that what holds most people back is themselves. What does it matter if people dismiss your creativity or think you’re strange? The best kind of creativity, Gilbert says, is the kind that’s done entirely because *you* want to do it, not because you’re trying to appeal to the masses. The Big Magic, really, is experiencing the joys of creativity for yourself and not for some nebulous, unknown consumer market. If you’re fortunate, the market may follow. If not, it won’t. Either way, you’ll have created something and will have the pride of knowing that it’s yours. And when you’re done, you’ll let it loose, acknowledge that it may not be perfect, and go on to make something else. You can do all this with a sense of awe that you’re doing something that fulfills a need deep within yourself. It won’t feed you or clothe you or put a roof over your head (unless your creative outlet is something like farming or weaving or carpentry, in which case you may well fulfill some of these essential needs as well), but it will provide you with experiences that you can hoard like treasures, to be pulled out and admired and marveled at whenever you so desire.Reading this book was so good for me because it helped me to see how counterproductive some of the nagging voices in the back of my head are. It encouraged me to take creative leaps and to be philosophical when those leaps sometimes fail, as they inevitably will. Gilbert has helped me to see that, no matter what, I will always long for that creative outlet, so why bother denying it to myself? I can engage with it for the pure joy of engaging with it, and if anything else comes of it, great. If not, well, I’ll have been living the life I want to live, and that really counts for more than anything else.
ARHuelsenbeck –
I find Elizabeth Gilbert interesting. But I only partially agree with her.I bought and read Eat, Pray, Love (after the movie—which I never saw—came out). Then I took it to my local secondhand bookstore and traded it for credit.Some of you know I am a bookaholic (*cough* hoarder). Two new books arrived at my house today. My daughter says, “Why do you still buy books? Duh, you can borrow them from the library for free.”I did my share of traipsing back and forth from the library with shopping bags full of books every two weeks from the time I was six until my kids were grown. I’ve bought books at garage sales for ten cents. I still buy used books, but if there’s a book I want to read now and I can’t find it used or on sale, I’ll gladly pay $24.95 for it, anticipating a long-term relationship. I like to devour them, and then come back to them again and again to re-digest them.But one time through Eat, Pray, Love was enough. It didn’t earn space on my bookshelf (or in my closet, or in a box on the floor of my study…). I enjoyed the intimate look at Gilbert’s life and the glimpse of how her brain works, but I’ll never read it again. Her worldview is foreign to me. She credits the universe with the power to answer prayer. I can’t relate. The universe is a created thing. The Creator is the One Who answers prayers.When Big Magic came out, I wanted it because it is subtitled Creative Living Beyond Fear. Elizabeth Gilbert is nothing if not interesting and creative.Yet, as I read Big Magic, I found myself longing for The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.Katie, my youngest (but all grown up) daughter, visited and found Big Magic in my study. “I read this,” she said.“Yeah, I’m a little disappointed in it,” I said.“Me, too. But why?”“I bought it hoping that it would take me to the next level in my writing. But it’s not that helpful.”“That’s because you’re already creative. This book is for beginners.”Katie’s evaluation is right on the nose. If you’ve always wanted to do something creative, but held back for fear of not being good enough, this book may be just the kick-start you need.So, the mini-review of Big Magic is: it’s not The Artist’s Way; it’s more Creative Lite.But let’s go a little deeper.On page 86, Gilbert says, You do not need anyone’s permission to live a creative life. I’m disappointed in that, because most books on creativity start out by granting readers permission to express themselves.Gilbert characterizes ideas as being entities having lives and agendas of their own. Their main agenda is to be given birth as art. So they go around suggesting themselves to likely hosts. In other words, the idea approaches you. You can squash it or ignore it. You can let it wait until the spark dies. You can suggest it move on. Or you can run with it.Then Gilbert tells the story of a wonderful novel she began writing about a spinster from Minnesota who falls in love with her boss and goes to the Amazon. Gilbert had a contract for the book and did extensive research. She invested a great deal of time and effort into it. Unfortunately, events in her personal life intervened, and she temporarily set aside the novel.When she went back to it after a two-year hiatus, it was dead. Though she tried to resurrect it, nothing she tried could bring it back to life.One day, when telling her friend Ann Patchett about it, Patchett told her she was currently writing that book. In fact, she got the idea right around the time they first met each other. Gilbert says the idea transmitted itself to Patchett when she gave her a kiss.Interesting. But total b.s.Not that people don’t independently come up with the same original idea as someone else all the time. Gilbert says in her book,”When the nineteenth-century Hungarian mathematician Janos Bolyai invented non-Euclidean geometry, his father urged him to publish his findings immediately, before someone else landed on the same idea, saying, “When the time is right for certain things, they appear at different places, in the manner of violets coming to light in early spring.”In the late 1990s to early 2000s I wrote a novel which never saw light of day. I am in the process of rewriting it, but I’m keeping several scenes from the original manuscript. One pivotal scene that I can’t (or don’t want to) leave out is going to seem ripped-off from The Hunger Games, even though I wrote it a decade before Suzanne Collins and she never kissed me. Sigh.Gilbert tells some great stories in this book. If you like Lindsey Sterling’s story about being The Only Pirate at the Party, you’ll love the section called Walk Proudly (pages 260-264).Some good advice Gilbert gives in Big Magic:Stop complaining if you want to live a more creative life (page 117).Don’t quit your day job. Most artists don’t make a living from their art and must have a back-up job to free themselves from the burden of expecting art to pay the bills (pages 151-156).Don’t think that success looks like money or acclaim. If you love what you’re doing, that’s success (pages 182-184).It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Translation: get an agent (page 193).When you have no inspiration, follow curiosity (pages 237-239).However, in my opinion, some of her advice is flawed. She also says, “Whenever anybody tells me they want to write a book in order to help other people, I always think, Oh, please don’t…I would so much rather you wrote a book in order to entertain yourself than to help me” (pages 98-99).I suspect most of Big Magic was written for Elizabeth Gilbert’s own entertainment. It certainly wasn’t her intention to help me, and she succeeded. Big Magic will get traded in for credit next time I go to the used bookstore.
Lee –
I liked how positive this book is, the pages are quick to read and they carry weight.
Marcie Seidel –
It was great to find a great new book on creative, inspiration and empowerment. It’s a very positive positive and upbeat read and it really fuels the creative juices and empowers the artist the writer, the yoga instructor whatever your thing is it you’ll feel really empowered. There’s some great suggestions and exercises that move towards a more positive pattern in your life. If you want to refresh the whole process, this is the book to read. Definitely got the creative juices flowing. And then today’s world positivity is definitely a welcome hors d’oeuvre.
C.Lacroix –
With a title like “Big Magic” I guess I was expecting profound life changing advice to totally rock my world, but for me, this one was a huge flop! I’ve seen this book before that came across my Amazon suggestions, but when I saw it being highly recommended in a paint party business group I signed up for, I felt like it was a sign that I had to order it especially after reading the reviews and informational interviews with the artist on YT.So I ordered this book after hearing some of Elizabeth Gilbert’s talks about her book and hearing so many profound ‘ah-ha!!’ moments that convinced me that I HAD to get this book and read more hoping that the full content would be 1000x better than just what I heard. Well, I finally received this today and read it within 2 hrs time front to back and was sadly disappointed!!I’m not sure what it I was that didn’t do it for me with this one, but it didn’t meet anywhere’s close to my expectations despite what I heard from the author and its reviews before I actually read the book. I sort of found it annoying and was waiting for it to get better, but for me, it just never got to that point. I hate starting a book and not finishing it in case my disappointment was due to something I had missed in the parts I never read.I also found it kind of weird there was no intro and the book just starts in with what is supposed to be chapter one. The chapters/parts kind of jump around, but still tie into and bounce off of each other back and forth a little. The author mentions that this book wasn’t written for her audience, but for her (as our work should be done for) which may be why it’s written in the structure it was-who knows. I find it weird that a book not meant for its viewers be published for viewers to read that specifically mentions it wasn’t written for viewers to read in its content.One of the parts that annoyed me was that the chapters started weird and a few of them started with the word “also” making a point to start a new chapter, but still banking off the previous sub-chapter’s point, make me feel like it shouldn’t have been broken up like that.While I don’t mean to sound mean here, because I still commend her bravery to keep on being so determined to get her work selected and trudging on through so many “no” rejections and while I understand her point in explaining why it was so important to include that in her book (to reiterate the importance of being persistent), I can honestly see why her writing style many not have been chosen for so long. If this book is anywhere like her other books, I have a hard time trying to wrap my head around how her other book “Eat, Pray, Love” got so famous.One of the other poor reviews this book got, mentions that maybe it’s not geared towards those who are already creative which might have been why I didn’t find it so appealing, but then the book mentions that we are ALL creative beings so that shouldn’t matter much to make or break this book for me.This book did leave me with a few ‘yeah, that DOES make a good point, one I really never thought of like that!’ thoughts just like with the videos I saw with her speaking, but that’s about it. I feel like I got far more out of the videos about her talking about the book than I did the book. From the reviews, I honestly felt like this would be highlighting the crap out of it with profound points left and right as much as the reviews hyped up this book to by, which is why I invested in the hardcover copy, but not once did this leave me even thinking to grab my highlighter or dog-ear the pages. In many parts I just hung around waiting to get over with the boring parts to get to the really good stuff that didn’t really come.After reading the cover jacket info on the book, I honestly didn’t feel like this book lived up to the expectation of what it promised. I also feel like this maybe should have been a sequel to her other book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ (which I have not read and know nothing of what it’s really about) with as many times as she mentioned it in this book. I’m not sure if that book is better or worse than this one, but I honestly feel as though if a book IS meant to be a sequel to another book you’ve written, then you probably shouldn’t base your other books around them if you want them to speak for themselves. I feel like just because you have ‘made it’ with one book, doesn’t mean you should piggy-back your other books off of them especially if they don’t have anything to do with each other.I feel like my biggest disappointment with this book was *because*I*do* struggle with fear being a creative and hoped this book would offer better ways to over come that. I know the book was supposed to be geared more towards ‘creative people’ with her term “artist” being used a lot, but I find it kind of annoying when the whole book was more so about her writing journey, leaving me feeling like she was speaking more towards writers than actual art-artists or creative people as a whole. I know it can be applied across the board of creatives, but the over reference of her writing examples was a turn off. I would have loved to hear more of those general creative experiences applied to what she was talking about and less about how her writing made it into a learning experience to teach us.Idk how many times I found myself thinking that this book would be better gifted to my son who struggles more with the issues this book was supposed to help with. Much of the advice in it, ha been much of what I have suggested to him over the years. Being a book hoarder and saying I wouldn’t keep this book, says a lot because I have a hard to like giving away or even loaning my books out even if I didn’t like them that much. I would much rather purchase a second copy and keep mine to give someone else, so to say this book IS one I would give away because it would be far more useful in someone else’s hands than sitting on my shel to possibly reread down the line somewhere by me, says a lot on how much I didn’t care for it. I’m not sure how this book got so many good reviews and it honestly left me feeling like I totally missed something here with this one!!
Amazon Customer –
I originally bought this for my Kindle. However after reading it, I bought 2 books as gifts. I am a visual artist and it is a great read for me. But whether you are a writer, painter, musician or non of these it is a must read. My husband is none of these and he said he saw himself in so many things she said. He liked it.I have reread it several times and I learn something new each time. I read chapters from it at least once a week and more when I get artist block.I love the way Elizabeth Gilbert writes. She is blunt and in your face at times. Great!!