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Daily Rituals
- How Artists Work
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
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Summary
Franz Kafka, frustrated with his living quarters and day job, wrote in a letter to Felice Bauer in 1912, "time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers."
Kafka is one of 161 inspired - and inspiring - minds, among them, novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians, who describe how they subtly maneuver the many (self-inflicted) obstacles and (self-imposed) daily rituals to get done the work they love to do, whether by waking early or staying up late; whether by self-medicating with doughnuts or bathing, drinking vast quantities of coffee, or taking long daily walks.
Thomas Wolfe wrote standing up in the kitchen, the top of the refrigerator as his desk, dreamily fondling his "male configurations..."
Jean-Paul Sartre chewed on Corydrane tablets (a mix of amphetamine and aspirin), ingesting ten times the recommended dose each day...
Descartes liked to linger in bed, his mind wandering in sleep through woods, gardens, and enchanted palaces where he experienced "every pleasure imaginable."
Here are: Anthony Trollope, who demanded of himself that each morning he write three thousand words (250 words every fifteen minutes for three hours) before going off to his job at the postal service, which he kept for thirty-three years during the writing of more than two dozen books...Karl Marx...Woody Allen...Agatha Christie...George Balanchine, who did most of his work while ironing...Leo Tolstoy...Charles Dickens...Pablo Picasso...George Gershwin, who, said his brother Ira, worked for twelve hours a day from late morning to midnight, composing at the piano in pajamas, bathrobe, and slippers...
Here also are the daily rituals of Charles Darwin, Andy Warhol, John Updike, Twyla Tharp, Benjamin Franklin, William Faulkner, Jane Austen, Anne Rice, and Igor Stravinsky (he was never able to compose unless he was sure no one could hear him and, when blocked, stood on his head to "clear the brain").
Brilliantly compiled and edited, and filled with detail and anecdote, Daily Rituals is irresistible, addictive, and magically inspiring.
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What listeners say about Daily Rituals
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- Patrik
- 02-06-15
A coffee table audio book.
Really nice to have in the background while doing errands. However I wouldn't list it as a favourite. Didn't have me riveted but it made for some interesting conversation starters around friends.
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- Truan Mathias
- 07-06-15
A remarkable to help make sense of my own brain
Amazing to hear the variations and similarities in people's work habits, which gives me faith to continue on the journey to my ideal, offbeat routine.
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- O. Earle
- 11-11-16
Creativity and its channeling thru artists
All routines described in this book are fascinating. It is clear that each artist had some sort of internal resistance for the muse to realise itself thru their work. It was mostly a painful experience. Each artist had developed a routine, taboos, rituals and processes to overcome this internal hurdle to keep creating.
I really enjoyed the narration by Adam Vernet, it was very captivating. Overall this book made me feel more human and humble.
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- Mark Lancaster
- 11-10-17
Would make a great coffee table book imo.
On first listen I had to stop because it got a bit dull, in a people watching way. Like endless pictures of friends meals on FB. Came away thinking that there was no special way for encouraging creativity by schedule only that many prodigious persons self medicated with various types of intoxicating or stimulating consumptions.
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- Lyd
- 14-04-15
Eek! Quality check please!
Great collection of the quirky behaviours and habits of our heroes and heroines spanning many centuries. Only problem being the DIRE pronunciation throughout! Audible: please get a good quality checker! Ruins an otherwise perfectly good, informative listen.
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8 people found this helpful
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- aviva
- 04-01-15
Is there an editor in the house?
The premise of this book is great. It is however not very consistent in its research. The publishers should have considered the subject matter more before they chose the narrator. It clearly called for someone who can pronounce French words... And don't get me started on some of the British names that were absolutely slaughtered. Still, this is a little light listening gem.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Ad Morris
- 23-01-21
I Loved This Book
Fantastic book. As entertaining as it was enlightening. Some of the most famous creative people in history didn't follow the nine to five factory system routine. Shock horror! A lesson in fearless individualism and unconventionality with heed to some of the pitfalls also. 5/5
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- Daisy
- 25-03-14
Difficult to take away from
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I would recommend this to a friend who struggles with finding the time to write. It provides a lot of reassurance to the aspiring writer that successful writers throughout history have struggled with, and worked around the same difficulties.
Would you be willing to try another book from Mason Currey? Why or why not?
Its hard to take away from this book any great observations about the writer, beyond my feeling that this is a lovely theme upon which to base a book.
I would have liked the book to go into more depth on certain writers and artists, to give more psychological analysis, to work out the deep reasons behind their work methods.
However I wouldn't have thought this was an inadequacy of the writer, but more a lack of available evidence about each author.
I think he could have tried to organize the writer profiles into his own themed chapters as it was difficult to identify any particular themes, as there was no coherent order to the way in which the book way laid out.
What does Adam Verner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
I found his voice quite hard to follow, but i think this could be due to the repetitive layout of the artist profiles.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Óg Hugh
- 30-11-14
Excellent insight to the "creative class"
Where does Daily Rituals rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Definitly in the top two.
Would you recommend Daily Rituals to your friends? Why or why not?
Yes. This audiobook cmae just at the right time. I was just going part time and freaking out a bit about not having a stable routine. I learned fom rthis book an idea of how to set out on a day of writing.
Which character – as performed by Adam Verner – was your favourite?
Twyla Tharp
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Beethovans habits made me Laugh!
Any additional comments?
Any creative person or curisous person wanting to know what the "greats" did? Buy this audiobook.
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1 person found this helpful
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- David
- 28-04-19
👍
You realise after listing to this book that we all are unique in our creative process, there is no one size fits all
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