Saturday, May 3, 2008

Recent Read - The Sounds of Paper

I've just finished Julia Cameron's The Sound of Paper a book I started a year ago. It is a series of three to four page essays on the creative life. Each essay focused on a particular topic with a suggested exercise for personal reinforcement. The duration of the reading was attributed to the manner which I choose to read the book. For me the book was best read in segments over time. This allowed me to contemplate, experience and apply the subject matter gaining more value then if I had read it straight through. Because of how the book was written I could always pick up right where I had left off and feel at home even after an extended absence. On the one or two occasions where I read sections more continuously I did not find it as enjoyable or valuable an experience. But that's just me. Although the topics at times seemed might seem a bit simple or obvious, it is often that which is right in front of us which we fail to see. If one is open minded and allows the book to unwind at it's own pace, it may bring to light some important insights which we fail to see or simply forgot. Having completed this journey I feel satisfied and already prepared to return to the beginning and start again with possibly another one of Cameron's books in a similar vain. As I am quite probably one of the last people on earth to not have read The Artist's Way, I may go that route, we’ll see.

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