Today, July 9th , we begin the first discussion question for the Beyond Busy Global Monthly Book Club’s fourth book.This is yet another book by an author with a huge following. It’s the third book of this type we have read so far. The first was Some Assembly Required by Anne Lamott. The second was Alison Bechdel’s Are You My Mother? (Our first selection, Cheryl Stayed’s Wild did not originally have a huge following…but it sure does now.)
Anyone who has read our current discussion book can participate by commenting. You can also join our public BBGMBC Facebook group, if you would like to join us in reading one excellent quality book per month and then discussing it here.
And without further ado, let’s kick off the discussion of Imagine: How Creativity Works written by Johah Lehrer.
I had not read any of Lehrer’s work prior to reading this book. Had you read any of Lehrer’s work prior to reading this book?
Did reading his work make you any more or less receptive to this book? Do you think it would have helped you as a reader of Imagine to have already read Lehrer’s book, How We Decide?
This author seems to have a specific style of writing where he investigates a person or company with a high level of creativity and then tries to crack that code or uncover the surprising aspect of the story.
What I notice about this approach, is that the stories themselves are so complex that I have trouble recalling them after I read them. But when I look back at my notes, I find that I have agreed with almost every single one of Lehrer’s conclusions about creativity…only I have made these discoveries through reflection on my own personal experience.
What did you think about the book’s beginning? Were you pulled right in or not?
What do you think about the pattern or rhythm of the way the book is written and the ideas unfold?
Do you have as much trouble as I do remembering what you just read? But do you also find yourself nodding along as you go?
You can respond to any or all of these questions, as you like.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Hope you all had a happy 4th of July
This is my first Johan Lehrer book. Imagine makes me curious to read his other works. It is fascinating. I wasn’t pulled right in but I thought there must be something here for it to have such good reviews and so I pushed on. Glad that I did.
This was my first book by Lehrer. After reading Imagine I will likely read his other books. I was pulled immediately into the book. However I felt it was a book I need to take my time reading. I enjoyed reading about a concept, pondering it and sharing some of them with others in my house.
As Christina mentioned, I did have trouble remembering details. I think that is because there is so much information packed into the book and so many anecdotes. I highlighted my paper copy as I went along so I could refer back to the nuggets that stood out for me.
Another great book pick and I am so glad you bumped the discussion back a week so I could read it without rushing.
Alas, I could not get into this book. I SO wanted to because
the title alone is something I’m VERY interested in. But opening with the need
for a new floor cleaner didn’t hook me at all. Since the story was about P&G, it was
easy to intuit where the story was going in that opening anecdote. Snore… spare
me the details, please.
On the other hand, the Table of Contents was inviting with
its creative chapter titles. But while I dipped into later chapters, the
writing style (investigative?) just couldn’t hold my attention.
All the while I’m reading about creativity, I’m
thinking ‘ditch the book and go create something!’ Which is exactly what I did.
I actually didn’t read this book (yet), but the comments thus far make me want to pick it up and give it a read.
This was my first Jonah Lehrer book, and it makes me want to read How We Decide very soon. I was drawn into the book immediately and enjoyed his style of using a single person or company as an example of the concept he was attempting to illustrate. I found the examples fascinating and well chosen, and I still recall them pretty vividly–maybe because they were so visual. (I also use a technique I learned in a cognition course for learning new material that involves writing questions in the margins, so that may contribute to my retention.) I also really appreciated the way he began the book discussing how individual creativity works and then moved on in the second half to discuss ways that groups of people can work to enhance creativity and increase the likelihood that magic will happen. It made me wish I worked in a larger company and/or lived in a larger city. I will definitely be looking for ways to increase the number of Third Spaces in my life.
Hi Y’all :)I agree with Christina’s above statement about having trouble recalling the details of this book after having read them and this made picking up the book amid life a challenge–as I typically read in bits and pieces all the time. For this one, I had to make sure I had quite a chunk of time before settling in to read it or I had to backtrack quite a few pages to catch myself back up. That is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means I take longer and have to be so inclined.I found a lot of snippets to like in the book and highlighted many quotes, however I did find it hard to push through some of the pages and confess to skimming here and there. I, too, felt as if I have discovered most of the conclusions about creativity in my own creative life along the way. This book club pick was the first of Jonah Lehrer’s work I’ve read. I don’t know if I will read more of his work or not, at this point. I really have to be into this type of non-fiction to make the pages turn.
His style reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell, but it is denser and quite difficult, frankly. I had to reread almost everything, sometimes more than twice, which is why I’m still only a fourth of the way in.
BUT!!! When I finally understood what he was saying about Dionysian (diverging) vs. Apollonian (converging) logic, my prefrontal cortex whooped with joy at finally making the connection! For I have wondered about this myself, but not understood it at all. I thought I was losing my creativity and becoming anal! But I am just in an Apollonian stage (editing prior to publication). I could go on but this is probably more than you want to know.
Okay, one more thing? There’s a part on page 68 that explains how the brain, having finally understood something, is changed forever. And I felt kind of emotional, reading this. It seemed so beautiful, almost holy. To think that this is what our beautiful brains are laboring to achieve, and that such growth and development is possible! Made me feel like I was witnessing creation.
Okay, NOW I’ll put a lid on it. Great, great book.
I’m sorry you didn’t like the book choice, Debra. But I do think you are missing out. I find myself being incredibly inspired by this book. It’s a specialty topic for me, so I’d probably never get tired of this particular topic. 🙂
Thanks
for sharing this great and interesting stuff. Fabulous post! I really enjoyed
that.