Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury — writing, creativity, inspiration, craft

You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier — technology, culture, internet, social media, ai, philosophy, ethics, creativity

Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark — writing, communication, creativity, storytelling, language

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson • 2010 — innovation, creativity, networks, collaboration, business, science

The Writer's Chapbook by George Plimpton — writing, creativity, literature, interviews, craft

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield — self-help, creativity, art, writing, motivation, resistance

The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley, Jonathan Littman — business, innovation, design, creativity, teams, leadership, customer experience

The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin — creativity, self-help, work, art, leadership, marketing

The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World by Iain McGilchrist — neuroscience, philosophy, consciousness, psychology, cognition, perception, creativity, brain, hemispheres, science, truth, intuition, reason

The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen • 2019 — innovation, business, strategy, leadership, creativity, psychology

The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen — innovation, business, creativity, entrepreneurship, leadership

The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde • 1983 — art, creativity, gift-economy, anthropology, philosophy, culture

The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc. by Jonathan Lethem — writing, creativity, influence, culture, art, essays, literary criticism

The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination by Daniel J. Boorstin — history, art, creativity, culture, religion, philosophy

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin, Neil Strauss — creativity, mindfulness, artistic process, self-development

The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm by Tom Kelley, Jonathan Littman — innovation, design, creativity, business, prototyping, ideo, product design

The Anxiety of Influence by Harold Bloom • 1973 — literary criticism, poetry, influence, psychology, creativity

The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop by Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. — music, jazz, history, culture, race, biography, creativity, innovation

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You by Jack Covert, Todd Sattersten, Sally Haldorson — business, leadership, management, strategy, sales, marketing, finance, innovation, creativity

Teaching with AI by José Antonio Bowen, C. Edward Watson — ai, education, teaching, higher education, ai literacy, creativity, grading, assessment, faculty

Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono — thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, creativity, communication, collaboration

Seeing What Others Don't: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights by Gary Klein • 2013 — psychology, insights, decision-making, creativity, innovation, organizational-behavior

Reality Hunger: A Manifesto by David Shields — literature, art, creativity, digital age, appropriation, memoir, reality, fiction, nonfiction, collage, manifesto

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant • 2016 — psychology, innovation, business, creativity, leadership

Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration by Warren Bennis, Patricia Ward Biederman — leadership, teams, creativity, innovation, collaboration, history, business

Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon MacKenzie — business, creativity, self-help, leadership, work, culture

Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami — writing, fiction, creativity, publishing, culture, self-reflection

Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus by Gene Santoro — music, jazz, biography, history, culture, race, creativity

Mastery by Robert Greene • 2012 — self-help, success, learning, creativity, history, psychology

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin — business, self-help, careers, creativity, work, leadership

Learning to See: Inside the World's Leading Art and Design Schools by Keith Sawyer • 2025 — creativity, education, design, art, pedagogy

Interviews with the Masters by Robert Greene — mastery, interviews, self-improvement, entrepreneurship, psychology, creativity, leadership, learning, innovation

Innovation for the Fatigued by Alf Rehn — business, innovation, creativity, culture, leadership, teams

Impromptu: Amplifying Our Humanity Through AI by Reid Hoffman, GPT-4 — ai, technology, business, artificial intelligence, human augmentation, future of work, creativity, education

How To Write Fiction: A Guardian Masterclass by Geoff Dyer, Jill Dawson, Andrew Miller, Rachel Cusk, Meg Rosoff, DBC Pierre, Adam Foulds, Kate Mosse, Mark Billingham, Clare Conville, Francis Bickmore, Roderick Gordon — writing, fiction, creativity, publishing

How to Think More Effectively: A guide to greater productivity, insight and creativity by The School of Life • 2020 — philosophy, psychology, creativity, self-improvement, productivity

Herbie Hancock: Possibilities by Herbie Hancock, Lisa Dickey — music, jazz, memoir, creativity, technology, innovation, spirituality

Genius at Play: The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway by Siobhan Roberts — mathematics, biography, game theory, creativity, artificial intelligence, cellular automata, infinity, games, science

Flow: The Psychology of Happiness by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi — psychology, happiness, flow, creativity, motivation, consciousness, self-improvement

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff — fiction, literature, relationships, marriage, creativity, gender

Deep Creativity: Seven Ways to Spark Your Creative Spirit by Deborah Anne Quibell, PhD, Jennifer Leigh Selig, PhD, Dennis Patrick Slattery, PhD — creativity, self-help, spirituality, art, psychology

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace — business, management, leadership, creativity, culture, innovation, teamwork, film, animation

Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick — ai, technology, business, education, creativity

Chris Crawford on Game Design by Chris Crawford — game design, interactivity, programming, creativity, technology, education

Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch • 2006 — creativity, meditation, consciousness, filmmaking, philosophy

But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz by Geoff Dyer — music, jazz, fiction, biography, culture, creativity

Becoming a Video Game Designer by Daniel Noah Halpern — gaming, design, culture, games, creativity, empathy, storytelling

American Sketches by Walter Isaacson — biography, leadership, history, politics, creativity, journalism, america, founding-fathers, foreign-policy, science, technology, einstein, franklin

3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool by James Kaplan • 2024 — music, jazz, biography, history, culture, race, addiction, creativity, collaboration, innovation