Daily Rituals

How Artists Work

By: Mason Currey

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Franz Kafka, frustrated with his living quarters and day job, wrote in a letter to Felice Bauer in 1912, "time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers."

Kafka is one of 161 inspired - and inspiring - minds, among them, novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians, who describe how they subtly maneuver the many (self-inflicted) obstacles and (self-imposed) daily rituals to get done the work they love to do, whether by waking early or staying up late; whether by self-medicating with doughnuts or bathing, drinking vast quantities of coffee, or taking long daily walks.

Thomas Wolfe wrote standing up in the kitchen, the top of the refrigerator as his desk, dreamily fondling his "male configurations..."

Jean-Paul Sartre chewed on Corydrane tablets (a mix of amphetamine and aspirin), ingesting ten times the recommended dose each day...

Descartes liked to linger in bed, his mind wandering in sleep through woods, gardens, and enchanted palaces where he experienced "every pleasure imaginable."

Here are: Anthony Trollope, who demanded of himself that each morning he write three thousand words (250 words every fifteen minutes for three hours) before going off to his job at the postal service, which he kept for thirty-three years during the writing of more than two dozen books...Karl Marx...Woody Allen...Agatha Christie...George Balanchine, who did most of his work while ironing...Leo Tolstoy...Charles Dickens...Pablo Picasso...George Gershwin, who, said his brother Ira, worked for twelve hours a day from late morning to midnight, composing at the piano in pajamas, bathrobe, and slippers...

Here also are the daily rituals of Charles Darwin, Andy Warhol, John Updike, Twyla Tharp, Benjamin Franklin, William Faulkner, Jane Austen, Anne Rice, and Igor Stravinsky (he was never able to compose unless he was sure no one could hear him and, when blocked, stood on his head to "clear the brain").

Brilliantly compiled and edited, and filled with detail and anecdote, Daily Rituals is irresistible, addictive, and magically inspiring.

©2013 Mason Currey (P)2013 Timothy Ferriss

as regular as art.

necessary reading for any aspiring artist. a discreet look at how the sausage gets made.

A source of inspiration

This collection served as inspiration to show up to the page. To normalize struggles and resistance in the creative process and gather ideas from the most prolific artists of our time.

There is no one size fits all approach

Every self help book on the planet wants you to believe that you must go to bed early and rise at 4am like jocko willink to be successful. This book proves that everybody is different, find what works for you. Also shows the value drugs played.

Good book, Bad narrator

Where does Daily Rituals rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I liked the insight and while it wasn't really descriptive it was interesting enough to see patterns and know I am not alone in some rituals.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narrator put me to sleep several times, I've never fallen asleep reading a book, or watching a movie, but oh boy this was just awful.

Loved it, but wish it had current people

Tim Ferriss did amazing with the narration. I wish this had people who are influential in today's day instead of the early 1900s and late 1800s

Good content, readable

I enjoyed the bite-sized nuggets of each artist. The author admits the content is superficial; there is no attempt to speculate why, which is fine. The snippets are clear enough, but without style or voice. The occasional misuse of a word was compound by the narrator's occasional mispronunciations. Overall, i liked it because ai haven't found anything else like it. My next read will be Tim Ferriss's Habits of Titans.

Took a while to get in the flow of it...

But once I did I really enjoyed the book. Was expecting more analysis along with the relaying of various rituals, but over time I appreciated that Currey allows you to pick up on common and diverging themes yourself.

inspirational

I really enjoyed learning about the different "rituals" of other writers and artists. Very interesting book!

Will buy several copies

Really loved the insights. The only jarring note in the otherwise lovely narration was that, if I am not mistaken, the reader mispronounced some names and titles. I’m an older reader, so I wondered at times if perhaps the author, were he to write this book again in 30 years, might have gone deeper. That said, it was a terrific read, and he does a great job of exploring that vast, messy mystery that is the human creative process.

Methods to Magic

Great artist do great work, but their approaches and methods range vastly. This book paints a picture of those rituals.