Sundays are for the books. To be fair, every day should be for the books, but there is something very sacred about being with a book on a Sunday. Nothing else takes priority— if I’m not in a book at some point on a Sunday, the whole week is off. Books are rejuvenating. And they do not have to be the commitment you are thinking. Even if all the time you have is to open up a random page or two, you would be surprised how that bit can influence your perspective for the day, week, work, art, life… the list goes on.

To illustrate this point I’m sharing two of my current favorites.

“The Nordic Baking Book” by Magnus Nilsson I bought while visiting a friend in a tiny town in New England. I knew immediately I had to have it for two reasons: Magnus Nilsson is a genius chef. I fell in love with his concepts for culinary creativity and relationship with nature via The Chef’s Table— they featured his (two Michelin star) restaurant Fävikan. To further illustrate the radiation of influence, looking up a video to share here led me to this brilliant talk of his on “New Beginnings” I had never heard, amazing. Even more to be inspired by!    The other reason that drew me to this book is far less sophisticated— I love bread. Feel free to jump in and out of his cozy recipes that compliment a life of slow-living, at least elements of…

“The Creative Act” by Rick Rubin is the book I was looking for. Creativity is hard to define and he doesn’t try to. Books on ‘manifestation’ and the ‘spiritual nature of creativity’ can be heavy and a lot to jump in and out of— one must be in the right mood. He has a way of unpacking creativity in an accessible way. He shifts lenses between opening the mind and focusing seamlessly. And while I originally sat down to read this front to back, this is a brilliant example of being able to open a book at random, if that’s all time allows, and being able to extract something valuable at once. Which is predominantly how I use this book, as a creative thinking manual.