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Reviews
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
kshanikajnani's review
3.0
Good read for the first 50%. Looses it's track and gets shades of some sort of weird religious book.
ccath's review
3.0
I think this book has interesting points but it has some over the top statements that kind of ruin the experience of reading the book + it becomes too spiritual for me at the end
brendino_mantino's review
2.0
Maybe some wisdom buried in here if you have a creative goal and are finding resistance in achieving it, but otherwise pretty egoic and lacking substantial insight into finishing creative endeavors.
levininja's review
5.0
This was the most actually motivating motivational book I have ever read. It really lit a fire under me. And that is quite remarkable; normally anything remotely motivational makes me vomit. But this book, this book.
The author names and defines Resistance. The thing that holds you back from writing. The thing that is endlessly creative, stubborn, endlessly stubborn, that wants nothing more than for you not to write. Or not to do the great important thing that you are meant to do. In fact, this book has nothing to do with writing, and everything to do with the fact that anything worth doing is hard. If you don’t have resistance, then that means it doesn’t matter. Only things that really matter have resistance. For you it could be painting, founding a non-profit, raising whole and healthy children, purging the insanity from yourself, engineering an invention, any number of things, but one thing is certain: it will be hard.
This book is written in many chapters and each chapter is one single page. The chapters are topics or vignettes or examples, each bite-sized but powerful.
This book is really the most important book for any writer to read, or anyone who wants to do great things. I bought an extra copy and gave it to an aspiring writer friend of mine who’s going through a hard time. Don’t do it because it’s easy, my friend.. Do it because it’s hard.
The author names and defines Resistance. The thing that holds you back from writing. The thing that is endlessly creative, stubborn, endlessly stubborn, that wants nothing more than for you not to write. Or not to do the great important thing that you are meant to do. In fact, this book has nothing to do with writing, and everything to do with the fact that anything worth doing is hard. If you don’t have resistance, then that means it doesn’t matter. Only things that really matter have resistance. For you it could be painting, founding a non-profit, raising whole and healthy children, purging the insanity from yourself, engineering an invention, any number of things, but one thing is certain: it will be hard.
This book is written in many chapters and each chapter is one single page. The chapters are topics or vignettes or examples, each bite-sized but powerful.
This book is really the most important book for any writer to read, or anyone who wants to do great things. I bought an extra copy and gave it to an aspiring writer friend of mine who’s going through a hard time. Don’t do it because it’s easy, my friend.. Do it because it’s hard.
syaower's review
3.0
Pressfield achieves what he set out to do: inspire the artist to create. I will certainly reflect back on this book when I need a nudge. However, some of his statements are oddly religious (but unspecified to a certain religion as though he cannot decide what he believes in) and other statements are too absolute for a book that doesn't really offer many concrete advice or tips. Still, it did encourage me to want to create more and in that I think this book achieved its purpose.
jnoh_reads's review
4.0
3.5
I was wary to read this because of the title. Does "Inner Creative Battles" sound stuffy and self-important to you too? Nevertheless, I decided to give it a chance.
Pressfield certainly got me thinking about my work and reflecting about my habits and posture towards my work. It reads quite quickly, but I intentionally spaced the reading out over a few days to let the ideas float around for a bit.
He uses metaphysical imagery to get his points across. Relatively lightly at first, but by the end, it's thick. I can't decide if it was distracting or helpful. In either case, it served to be an interesting reframing of ideas like inspiration, muses and work.
I was wary to read this because of the title. Does "Inner Creative Battles" sound stuffy and self-important to you too? Nevertheless, I decided to give it a chance.
Pressfield certainly got me thinking about my work and reflecting about my habits and posture towards my work. It reads quite quickly, but I intentionally spaced the reading out over a few days to let the ideas float around for a bit.
He uses metaphysical imagery to get his points across. Relatively lightly at first, but by the end, it's thick. I can't decide if it was distracting or helpful. In either case, it served to be an interesting reframing of ideas like inspiration, muses and work.
tannerjameswv's review
2.0
Pressfield has taken one idea, written it 10-15 different ways, and then typed 3 words per page to generate a handful of “books” that he can cross-sell to pay his mortgage.
The idea isn’t a bad one, though, and he can be entertaining while he hashes and rehashes it, so it’s worth 2 stars by my measure. Just be prepared to regret spending money or Audible credits if you choose to do that.
The idea isn’t a bad one, though, and he can be entertaining while he hashes and rehashes it, so it’s worth 2 stars by my measure. Just be prepared to regret spending money or Audible credits if you choose to do that.
warwriter1939's review against another edition
5.0
Keep this book. It might sound like "Who Stole My Cheese?" by giving inanimate human procrastination and other excuses a name, and it might be a little hokey at the end, but I believe in muses and angels, so it works for me.