A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it.
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Annta Claus here with an important message: Books make the best presents. Let’s check the list for why…
A book is personal. It’s chosen with someone specifically, squarely in mind.
A book has no expiration date.
A book can be used/reused as many times as you want. You can’t use it up.
Each time you read a book, you get a slightly different experience.
You can write in it. (You should write in it!)
Books don’t require double-A batteries, USB chargers, adapters, or software updates.
You can listen to a book. You can read it. Both count. (Whatever “count” means.)
You can mail books in the US at the lower USPS “book rate” (AKA Media Mail).*
*Trivia to toss out at the holiday table: In the 1930s, President Roosevelt created that cheaper postal rate as a way to encourage literacy.
Books are a window into another world. I might’ve seen that on a tote bag in a bookstore somewhere. But I’m going with it.
Reading material will keep you fully booked. (I definitely read that on a tote.)
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Are we on the same page? (These puns are writing themselves; I’m now lounging on the couch eating the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers.)
Here are my picks for books to gift to any writers, creators, marketers on your list. Or maybe even yourself (your-shelf?).
Quick aside: I avoided the obvious picks (the excellent Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, On Writing by Stephen King, The Elements of Style by Strunk & White) in favor of the lesser-known. Some of these I first suggested to you a few years ago; some things need re-gifting, re-celebrating, and always this season… remembering.
1. The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts That Unlock the Creativity in Everyone, Joseph Fasano
What it is: A Mad-Libs for poems. Does that sound… disparaging? A bit of a knock? It’s not. This book offers 50 simple, powerful prompts you complete yourself; it sneakily lures your brain into new territory.
Gift it to: Anyone who’s been feeling like their creative juices are frozen concentrate. Also good for teens, literary-minded young adults, your parents.
Favorite line: “If there’s a story you need to hear that no one has told, become it.”
My thoughts: I recently bumped into Joseph Fasano’s work on BlueSky, specifically a poem called “For a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper.” His last few lines are a gut-punch.
If I get nothing else out of BlueSky ever… that poem will be enough.
🦋 Related: Are you on BlueSky, too? Check it out and connect with me there.
2. On Writing (and Writers): A Miscellany of Advice and Opinions, C. S. Lewis
What it is: A recent compilation of writing wisdom from the legendary Clive Staples Lewis, author of the Narnia series. He shines his flashlight into lots of crevices: writing for children, science fiction, fantasy, poetry, humor, B2B white papers (just kidding).
Gift it to: Fans of the Narnia series; creators who could use a dose of inspiration from a master storyteller.
Favorite line: “Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. You should hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken. If it does not sound nice, try again.”
My thoughts: I turned that last line over in my head for a while.
“Nice” as a bar feels a little low, doesn’t it? It’s a colorless, odorless adjective for things that have no flair. (Side note: The origin of nice is the Latin nescius: “unaware, ignorant.” Maybe why I don’t like it.)
But the more I thought about it (…walking my dog Augie; picking up lunch; in a meeting… mind drifting back to why a great writer would aspire to merely “nice…”?), I came around.
Writing we love has a kind of melody to it, doesn’t it? A rhythm and a pulse and a pattern and the thrum of a human heartbeat that mmmmm… yes. Very niiiiiice. I heard the word differently that time.
3. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee
What it is: First-person essays blending fictional storytelling with the lived experiences of this novelist, poet, professor at Dartmouth College.
Gift it to: Those who aspire to… well, write a novel. It’s in the title.
Favorite lines: “You might think that your voice as a writer would emerge naturally, all on its own, with no help whatsoever, but you’d be wrong. What I saw on the page was that the voice is in fact trapped, nervous, lazy. And that it has to be cut free.”
My thoughts: A “trapped” voice. Yes! High-five, Alexander Chee! Exactly how it feels.
“Cutting” your way there reminds me of hacking through underbrush to get to a clearing. I wrote about that here.
Developing your voice is about freeing and honing your taste… and learning to trust your instincts with a machete.
4. The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing, Adam Moss
What it is: A behind-the-scenes look at how artists work.
Gift it to: Those who love to see how the sausage is made.
My thoughts: My favorite part of this book is how analog tools get cameos. The journal entries, napkins doodles, pencil sketches.
It’s a celebration of the process and the… umm, sausage. But also a celebration of the actual and metaphorical canvasses for creativity: the tools that connect our brain to our hands.
Creativity is a full-body contact sport! The book doesn’t say that… but I believe it to be true.
5. I Must Be Dreaming, Roz Chast
Source: I Must Be Dreaming, Roz Chast
What it is: A graphic book from cartoonist Roz Chast exploring the lawless, “uncolonized” Dream District—that weird part of us where anything can happen. Where the dead walk with us again. Animals recite poetry. A turnip grows as large as a school bus. A walled Narnia, but you are the writer—not C.S. Lewis.
Gift it to: The midday nappers in your life.
My thoughts: Are you a Roz Chast stan? Me, too. Her latest book is a window into the artist’s creative process that is both quirky and profound and strangely life-affirming.
6. Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, Mary Norris
What it is: A fun book about grammar. (Yes. Fun.)
Gift it to: Those who judge your grammar; fans of the New Yorker (Mary Norris spent three decades in its copy department).
(She has a fun video series from her days there, too. See the one about the Oxford comma—a hill I will die on.)
Favorite line: She writes about the point of writing through the lens of the editor when confronted with an apparent “error” by a writer:
“Spelling not point. Point is words—right words in right order, for devastating effect.”
My thoughts: “Devastating effect.” I like that phrase better than “nice.” I’ve flipped again on C. S. Lewis.
7. Everybody Writes 2: Your New & Improved Go-To Guide to Ridiculously Good Marketing, by me
What it is: An easy-to-read resource that can help anyone become a better writer. Especially marketers.
I’m including it here as a cleanse for all this… <gestures vaguely>…art.
Sure, you can read this book as a content marketing guide. But you can also read it as an argument for why craft matters and how to apply said craftiness… in ways both nice and devastating.
Gift it to: Marketers in your life who feel worn to the nub by nincompoops who think content is a commodity.
HONORABLE MENTION
The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin
👉 I just started this one. Promising.
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer
👉 Brand new & on my list. IDK if this is a book to boost your creativity, exactly. But she’s one of the most beautiful writers I’ve ever read. It’s annoying how good she is, honestly.
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One more thing…
Creativity and storytelling and writing are under siege in 2024.
Generative A.I. is fine. But what really will differentiate you in a world of A.I. everywhere—and (at its worst) A.I. slop—is to sharpen your own storytelling and creative powers.
Ridiculously good writing is about touching hearts. Tapping into your creative self is ultimately about connecting it with other selves out there. It’s about making the world feel a little more accessible. About making each one of us feel a little less alone.
We all want to be understood. To know that our weirdness isn’t really all that weird. We all want to be seen.
That’s true whether you’re freeing a trapped voice or writing a B2B email newsletter or a nice sentence or a devastatingly good BlueSky post.