book review rick rubin

The Rick Rubin Guide to Creativity

Can the legendary record producer’s book really make you into an artist?

The Rick Rubin method: It’s not for everyone. Warm-voiced, flowing, bearded like a deity, the legendary record producer (nine Grammys) is about mindset. He’s about essence. He’s hands-off, allowing the possibilities to manifest, and then abruptly, disorientingly, hands-on, demanding take after take of a guitar solo or vocal line. And if you are, for example, a late-stage rock star from the postwar slums of Birmingham, England, it might all tend to make you a bit grumpy. “I still don’t know what he did,” Geezer Butler, the Black Sabbath bassist and lyricist, told SiriusXM a few years ago, recalling Rubin’s work on Sabbath’s 2013 comeback album, 13 . “It was a weird experience … He played us our very first album, and he said, ‘Cast your mind back to then, when there was no such thing as heavy metal or anything like that—and pretend it’s the follow-up album to that,’ which is a ridiculous thing to think.”

Ridiculous? Perhaps, perhaps. But if you’ve read Rubin’s mega-selling artist’s manual, The Creative Act: A Way of Being , you’ll recognize the strategy. Inviting Black Sabbath to forget heavy metal— which, by the way, the band invented —would come under the rubric of, in Rubinspeak, “detaching from the story.” Which is one of his techniques or mystical protocols for dumping artistic baggage and reconnecting to (more Rubinspeak) “Source.” If it gets between you and Source, Rubin says, it must be discarded. “Any label you assume before sitting down to create,” he writes with his co-author, Neil Strauss, “even one as foundational as sculptor, rapper, author, or entrepreneur, could be doing more harm than good. Strip away the labels. Now how do you see the world?” Are you listening, Geezer Butler? The past 50 years don’t exist. Heavy metal is a figment. The Big Bang never stopped: It’s happening every second. Now pick up your bass and play , daddy-o.

From the June 2011 issue: James Parker on how heavy metal is keeping us sane

The Creative Act is three books in one, really: a how-to for aspiring or faltering artists, an opening-up of Rubin’s own bag of tricks as a producer/cosmic facilitator, and an account of the spirituality that defines his method. (That subtitle is a missed opportunity, by the way. My suggestion: The Creative Act: How to Be Transcendental and Still Make Records With Sir Mix-A-Lot .) It’s been a fixture on the New York Times best-seller list since its publication in January of last year.

Why? Why is there such a turned-on audience for a book that contains lines like “The outcome is not the outcome” and “We’re on a distant metaphysical journey from the here to the now”? Well, partly because there’s always an audience for that kind of book. But more specifically, because Rick Rubin knows what he’s doing. His discography is too massive and various for there to be a distinctive Rick Rubin sound, but there is a Rick Rubin feel , and you can locate it somewhere between Slayer’s South of Heaven , LL Cool J’s Radio , and Johnny Cash’s American Recordings . It’s a thrilling, ageless sense of presence, of instrumental friction, of waves pushing through space. Stripped-back but superabundant, the elements laid bare and the fundamentals boosted, from John Christ’s guitar tone—dark blue, luridly defined—on the first Danzig album (1988) to the roof-falls-in percussion of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” (2004). Rubin, in this respect, is the true heir to the mighty essentialist Mutt Lange, producer of AC/DC’s Highway to Hell and Back in Black : Each whump of the kick drum seems to carry a statement about the nature of the universe.

And the fullness of the kick drum expresses the fullness, the all-in-ness, of the artist. Genuine expression is a totality. “Creation is original freshness related to God,” as Thomas Aquinas put it. And Run-D.M.C.’s Tougher Than Leather is original freshness related to Rick Rubin. He’s been a serious innovator in the realms of hip-hop and metal, and also—with those Johnny Cash albums particularly—a gifted expediter of the American tradition. When it comes to getting the best out of an artist, in other words, Rubin can teach.

Read: How Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C. begrudgingly made a masterpiece

Also: His book is not just for musicians. It’s for everyone. To a slightly insane degree, in my view. We’re all artists, Rubin says, all creators, every one of us, because—as human beings—we perceive . “In each moment,” he writes, “we are immersed in a field of undifferentiated matter from which our senses gather bits of information. The outside universe we perceive doesn’t exist as such. Through a series of electrical and chemical reactions, we generate a reality internally.”

Now, call me old-fashioned, but I find this claim—that we are all adrift in a species of electrified data-porridge, inexplicably endowed with something between our ears that converts it into trees, boyfriends, penguins, slices of pizza, etc.—rather astonishing. (Technically, I believe, it’s called subjective idealism : You can find it in the philosophy of Bishop Berkeley and the Yogācāra school of Buddhism.) Only a little less astonishing is the fact that most readers, if they pause over these lines at all, will do so only to award them a grunt of unruffled assent: Yup. Sure. But there we are. Or here we are: America, 2024, up to our eyeballs in the primacy of individual experience, each of us bubbling around in our personal truth, our privately generated reality.

Nevertheless, from this (to me) dubious starting place, Rubin proceeds to lay out a very clear and helpful and thoroughly road-tested vision of the stages of creativity. Energy, the raw stuff of creation, is coming at you all the time, in hints, clues, rhymes, or blasts of inspiration. The trick—or the great task—is to make yourself available to it, and then, with craft and cunning and stamina, convert it into art. And although stylistically The Creative Act has a light furring of New Age waffle—there are warm breezes, and hummingbirds, and flowers blooming in the trueness of their flowery nature—once you go through that, it’s bare-bones practical, even stern.

Excessive complaining is a sideshow: “We’re not being ordered to do this. If we’d rather not do it, let’s not do it.” Open yourself up. Be fearless. Be attentive. Tune out the bullshit. Do whatever you have to do to maintain yourself in a state of receptivity. And get the job done, bring it to completion. Don’t piss about, or that original creative impulse might curdle or back up on you: “Think of inspiration as a force not immune to the laws of entropy.”

There’s a time—a moment in the process—for distraction, and a time to put distraction away. There’s an Experimentation phase, during which you note carefully your body’s reaction to an idea and postpone the “head work” of analysis, and a Craft phase, where you get down to business. Then this, which I find fascinating: “Think of an artistic impasse as another type of creation. A block of your own making. A decision, conscious or unconscious, not to participate in the stream of productive energy that is available to us at all times.” Writer’s block as inverted art project: a willed thwarting of the celestial flow.

Being so bearded, being so Zen ( he’s a lifelong meditator ), Rubin is determinedly nondogmatic. This might be true, but so might that. Try one thing, then try another. Get comfortable with paradox. “Self-awareness is a transcendence. An abandonment of ego … This notion may seem elusive, because in the same breath, it includes tuning in to the self and surrendering the self.” After 400 pages of this, or variations of this, you’ll be an accidental adept in what Keats called “negative capability”: “when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.”

For all that, Rubin’s book will charge you up. With art, the stakes are high. In fact, they could scarcely be higher. You will be attacked by self-doubt, by the pressure to make a living, by a vulgarizing commercial system, and by “undermining voices.” The sensitivity required to make good art can leave you feeling … sensitive. But—for your life to fulfill itself—you’ve got to do it.

That’s the neural message, that’s the stimulus, that I took from The Creative Act . And it all brought me back to a scene from Funky Monks , the 1991 documentary that tracks Rubin and the Red Hot Chili Peppers as they bounce around a mansion in Laurel Canyon recording Blood Sugar Sex Magik . In this scene, John Frusciante, the Chili Peppers’ wayward guitarist, barely 21 at the time and worryingly handsome, is talking to someone behind the camera. Frusciante is stretched on a couch or bed, propped against a wall, cigarette in hand, pale-chested under a silken-looking robe. Half-avatar, half-casualty. And he’s holding forth with beautiful, drastic earnestness: “Anything at all that I thought wasn’t directly aimed at helping my creativity come out,” he says, “I treat it as if it was a knife to my heart.”

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THE CREATIVE ACT

A way of being.

by Rick Rubin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 10, 2023

Learn, do, have fun: terrific encouragement for anyone embarking on a creative project, no matter what it might be.

The renowned music producer offers an apothegmatic study of creativity.

“However you frame yourself as an artist, the frame is too small,” writes Rubin, producer of albums across genres, from rap to metal to country. Rather than issue gnomic instructions in the manner of Brian Eno’s “oblique strategies” set of cards, Rubin, always encouraging, begins by insisting that creativity “is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human.” Though readers may feel slightly cowed next to someone like, say, Paul McCartney, whom the author interviewed at length in a recent Hulu series, Rubin has an apt reply: “You exist as a creative being in a creative universe. A singular work of art.” There are ways to position oneself in this creative universe and work to best advantage. The author counsels that it’s never a bad idea to read the very best books, view the very best movies, and study the very best paintings. The only shortcoming in this strategy is that “no one has the same measures of greatness.” Regardless, Rubin urges that the point of art is not to create a product to sell but instead to find a transcendent path to something wonderful within ourselves. “We’re not playing to win,” he writes, “we’re playing to play.” This means getting into child mode and preparing for the possibility that one game might be less fun than another. It also involves getting into the habit of not saying no to oneself or imposing limits just because you haven’t done something. “If there’s a skill or piece of knowledge you need for a particular project, you can do the homework and work toward it over time,” writes the author. “You can train for anything.”

Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-65288-6

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Penguin Press

Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022

BODY, MIND & SPIRIT | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | PSYCHOLOGY | SELF-HELP | ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS & CELEBRITY | GENERAL NONFICTION

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New York Times Bestseller

by Stephanie Johnson & Brandon Stanton illustrated by Henry Sene Yee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2022

A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.

A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.

Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.

Pub Date: July 12, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2

Page Count: 192

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS & CELEBRITY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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by Brandon Stanton

by Brandon Stanton photographed by Brandon Stanton

by Brandon Stanton ; photographed by Brandon Stanton

LOVE, PAMELA

by Pamela Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 31, 2023

A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.

The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.

According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that ." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy , which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.

Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023

ISBN: 9780063226562

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

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The Creative Act: A Way of Being

By Rick Rubin Penguin: 432 pages, $32 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org , whose fees support independent bookstores.

In 1984, Ronald Reagan was president; “Beverly Hills Cop” topped the box office; and Rick Rubin , a Jewish NYU student with an abiding love for hard rock, punk and rap, joined forces with Black music manager Russell Simmons to give fledgling Def Jam Recordings the creative boost it needed to become a hip-hop juggernaut. His dorm room initially served as Def Jam’s headquarters.

Over the next few years, Rubin produced or executive produced several hip-hop classics, including “Radio” by LL Cool J, “Raising Hell” by Run-DMC , “License to Ill” by the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy ’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.” Rubin’s minimalist, sparse production style, combined with the mellow vibes, sensitivity and unflagging encouragement he brought to the studio, helped these and other artists unleash their creativity.

In 1988, he left Def Jam and headed to L.A. in search of fresh sounds and a new beginning. If the story had ended there, Rubin would still go down as one of music’s most important producers. But he was just getting started.

Review: Hip-hop’s travels, from Queens to L.A. to Houston, get their due in an oral history

Jonathan Abrams’ ‘The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop,’ goes beyond New York’s marquee names to chart the growth of a national movement.

Oct. 24, 2022

Over four decades, Rubin has produced everyone from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Slayer to Tom Petty . Rubin revived Johnny Cash ’s flagging career over the course of several albums that stripped the Man in Black down to his emotional core. Along the way, the shaggy bearded, Zen-like impresario has picked up nine Grammy awards, most recently for his work with the Strokes. Rolling Stone has named him the most successful producer in any genre.

Now, Rubin has distilled his hard-earned wisdom into a book about creativity and how to access, nurture and liberate it in the service of great art. For the most part, “ The Creative Act : A Way of Being” succeeds on these terms, although readers can find many of the same ideas in myriad self-help, business and spiritual books. The difference is in the telling, which, with the assistance of writer Neil Strauss , is clear, convincing and engaging.

To Rubin, art is the ultimate form of self-actualization, a noble calling that enriches the soul. “The reason we’re alive is to express ourselves in the world,” Rubin writes, “and creating art may be the most effective and beautiful method of doing so.”

So, how does an artist move from conception to creation? Rubin methodically lays out the process, offering a mixture of encouragement, inspiration and tips.

Artists of all types, according to Rubin, should open their senses to the world to take in information, to gather seeds that can germinate into an idea. Meditation, communion with nature and exercise could help open those pathways. Artists should trust their instincts and feel free to experiment with form, function, materials and differing viewpoints. They can steep themselves in great works for stimulation and even try to emulate them to find a new way of expressing themselves.

Review: Bob Dylan’s new book is revealing, misogynistic and a special kind of bonkers

In ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song,’’ the Nobel laureate blends together music criticism, beat poetry, wolverine snarls and Lear-on-the-heath tirades.

Oct. 27, 2022

Some Rubin rules: Tune out naysayers. Avoid chasing money or fame. Aim for authenticity.

Then there are practices best avoided. “Fear of criticism. Attachment to a commercial result. Competing with past work. Time and resource constraints. The aspiration of wanting to change the world. And any story beyond ‘I want to make the best thing I can make, whatever it is’ are all undermining forces in the quest for greatness,” he writes.

Throughout “The Creative Act,” Rubin offers useful advice. If an artist feels stuck, for instance, he suggests they could work around the problem to maintain forward momentum. “A bridge is easier to build when it’s clear what’s on either side of it,” he says. Similarly, an artist might tap into their subconscious by keeping a pen and paper next to the bed to record dreams as soon as they wake up.

Rubin’s musings mostly hit the mark. However, he occasionally sounds more like a cool graduate student of philosophy than the musical and spiritual guru touted by his admirers. Take the stereotypical tortured artist, whom Rubin seems to romanticize: He excuses their selfishness because “their needs as a creator come first.”

The 2023 Grammy Awards winners list

The 2023 Grammy winners were revealed in 91 categories. Beyoncé became the most-decorated Grammy musician ever.

Feb. 5, 2023

Along the same lines, Rubin suggests that artists’ ability to see and feel things others don’t — both a blessing and a curse, in his opinion — can make creators feel alienated and alone. True, perhaps. But only affluent artists — multimillionaire record producers, for example — have the money and time to marinate in their own misery as they chase that elusive muse.

Rubin also intimates that artists possess superpowers. “Whether we know it or not, we’re a conduit for the universe. Material is allowed through us,” he writes. “If we are a clear channel, our intention reflects the intention of the cosmos.” Right on, man!

In the end, Rubin has written a fascinating book infused with deep thoughts, insight and, yes, lots and lots of creativity. Although it would have benefitted from more personal anecdotes, “The Creative Act” merits a close read with an open mind, body and soul.

Ballon, a former L.A. Times reporter, teaches an advanced writing class at USC. He lives in Fullerton.

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I Almost Quit, Then I Read Rick Rubin’s Book

This started as an attempt to review Rick Rubin's new book 'The Creative Act: A Way of Being.' It ended up being a much-needed reminder to keep creating.

I’ve been to Shangri-La. Years ago, back when I was a big wheel at the cracker factory—or more accurately, a cog in the hype machine—I visited Rick Rubin’s fabled Los Angeles studio. I was there to interview Rubin as part of a documentary series. I was excited to speak with a legend but found myself inspired by just sitting down on a bean bag big enough for two. It was placed in the middle of a huge room that was otherwise completely empty. The room was bathed in natural light, the hardwood floors were so clean they were gleaming, and the walls were freshly painted with a soothing tone of white. The entire space had a calming vibe, designed for creative contemplation. My mental chatter became a smooth hum, my thoughts flowed clearly. I felt inspired.  I don’t feel as inspired these days. I was laid off from a cushy job in late 2021. Despite many interviews, I haven’t been able to find a new full-time position. I once used to think of myself in the same way Mad Men ’s Don Draper described Peggy Olson: “You’re not an artist Peggy, you’re a problem solver.” Writing is an art, sure, but I wasn’t really an artist as much as someone tasked with coming up with creative solutions for content creation. Looking back, it all feels like a blur. As if it happened to someone else. Maybe I wasn’t there .  I scraped by last year doing freelance. Lately, I’ve been thinking about leaving the media business behind. Then, out of the blue, Jacob asked me to review Rick Rubin’s upcoming book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being . It felt like the universe was sending me a message. The Creative Act is essentially a self-help book designed to guide an artist through the creative journey. It’s something like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People but for musicians, however, its lessons can apply to any art form. “I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be,” writes Rubin. I found it especially enlightening because it told me something I desperately wanted to hear: creativity isn’t strictly limited to a profession. The book is 400 pages but its welcoming tone makes it an easy read. The sentences are short, as are the chapters. The writing oscillates from Morpheus’s calm, all-knowing voice encouraging you to take the blue pill in The Matrix  to James Franco talking about art in This Is The End . Rubin doesn’t exactly make an argument—in the beginning, he admits that nothing is a fact and everything is simply based on his observations in life.

{ "id": 132146764 } “I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be,” writes Rubin. I found it especially enlightening because it told me something I desperately wanted to hear: creativity isn’t strictly limited to a profession.

You can imagine Rubin in the studio gently reassuring an artist of all the insight he shares here. He recalls navigating real studio sessions, though he almost never identifies the artist by name. He references the creative habits and process of everything from Eminem to Andy Warhol to The Ramones to The Leaning Tower of Pisa. None of them are meant to be the definitive how-to guide, just reference points. The situations he describes will resonate with anyone who has done any kind of creative work for an extensive period. The highs and lows, the roadblocks and self-doubt, and the antenna you have to keep attuned to the universe’s signals.

For example, I had an interview set with an important person at a prominent brand for a job. I planned to pitch investigating Ticketmaster and the problem of nepotism in society. The meeting was canceled and I shelved the ideas, only to see them become talking points weeks later. Meanwhile, Rubin writes: “If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn’t because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea’s time has come.” There are tips for how to connect with your subconscious. He cites artists who listen to instrumentals for the first time and just start blurting out gibberish with no thought or preparation, something I’ve heard artists like Snoop Dogg and Rico Nasty claim they do.  He makes the case for utter randomness. In one passage, he suggests opening a book to an arbitrary page. Recalling a time when his doctor told him he should have his appendix removed, he picked up a book by Dr. Andrew Weli, opened it to a random page that said, “if a doctor wants to remove a part of your body, and they tell you it has no function, don’t believe this.” He opted against the surgery. While I probably wouldn’t take his medical advice, he’s really just trying to convince you to be open and let the universe guide you when you’re unsure.  He encourages experimentation and holding on to childlike wonder. He’s against competition and comparison, assuring artists that their competition is only themselves while they’re on the path of evolution. This is unlikely to ring true with the audience at large who love to compare, but it’s something any artist in the creative mode would benefit from hearing. “Putting your best effort in at each moment, in each chapter, is all we can ever hope to accomplish,” writes Rubin.   One of the most relatable sections is a bullet-pointed list of “Thoughts and habits not conducive to the work” which include, “Believing you’re not good enough,” “Abandoning a project as soon as it gets difficult,” and “Thinking you can only do your best work in certain conditions.” I’ve had every single thought on the list at one point or another, and I’m sure every artist I know can attest they’ve had them as well. 

[Rubin] grapples with the tension of art vs. commerce that every professional artist must confront. What he cares about is very clear, as he succinctly writes, “The business thinks in terms of quarterly earnings and production schedules. The artist thinks in terms of timeless excellence.”

Many of the sections where Rubin reflects on his personal experiences of crafting an album sound like the story of an album I know but not one Rubin had a hand in. He describes situations where an artist is no longer interested in the completion process ( DONDA 2 anyone?), and another one where an artist suddenly wants to start over because they spent too much time in one phase of crafting, citing things like “demo-itis.” He describes the difference between what he calls “experimenters” and “finishers.” He describes experimenters as people who find it difficult to complete and release work—it made me think of Dr. Dre. He describes finishers as people who move quickly to the endpoint with immediate clarity. It makes me think of prolific rappers like Lil Wayne, Future, and YoungBoy NeverBrokeAgain.  He grapples with the tension of art vs. commerce that every professional artist must confront. What he cares about is very clear, as he succinctly writes, “The business thinks in terms of quarterly earnings and production schedules. The artist thinks in terms of timeless excellence.” He also is frank about what often happens to artists who do finally blow up: “Most aspects of popularity are not as advertised. And the artist is often just as empty as they were before, probably more so.” 

Ultimately, he isn’t trying to make the case for being permanently inspired in a zen-like state of boundless creativity. Instead, he advises us to continuously work towards a goal, be okay without everything being perfect, and not let the voices in our heads dissuade us from making it to the finish line. When you finally do get to the end, the world’s greatest reducer explains how to strip it down to its bare essentials.  Reading the book I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes that Roger Ebert often cited though he did not originate: “The muse visits during, and never before, the act of composition.” People often think they need some grand idea before they can start working when in fact, you need to sit down, start working, and while you’re working a grand idea will come to you. Most of Rubin’s advice is so practical it’ll seem obvious if you actually follow through. At one point, I put the book down and started using voice dictation on my Notes app and came up with the first drafts of several ideas I’ve been thinking about. I would often press the dictation button by mistake and panic trying to figure out how to get back to a keyboard. Now I look at it as a tool that I’m going to use for every first draft. Perhaps every time I clicked it by mistake, the universe was giving me that signal like Rubin says. There’s a great anecdote where he recounts working with a woman coming off a successful album who had lost the will to keep working. When he told her she can stop making music if it wasn’t making her happy, her face lit up because she realized she would be happier putting her work out in the world. I thought of SZA, who seemed disenchanted with the music business after CTRL and took five years to craft SOS , an even better album.  Like the anonymous artist Rubin refers to, even as I find myself ready to give up, I can’t stop. I started writing on SubStack . I don’t really know why. Maybe I am an artist, after all, compelled by some unknown force. “You’re the only one with your voice,” assures Rubin.   I’ve only had two jobs in media, I may never get a third. Maybe that’s okay, I’m going to keep writing anyway. I’ve been to Shangri-La. I know the way back.

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The Creative Act by Rick Rubin review – life lessons from the bearded beat master

The co-founder of Def Jam Records and the man behind countless hits, from the Beastie Boys and Jay-Z to Neil Young, offers artistic wisdom that is both gnomic and pertinent

I f Rick Rubin were to write a memoir, it would be quite a tale. The American super-producer co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam from his college dormitory in the 1980s and produced early records for LL Cool J (the credit ran: “Reduced by Rick Rubin”) and the Beastie Boys .

Swiftly, though, Rubin began deploying his signature pared-back essentialism to amplify other loud genres, to great commercial success. Slayer’s classic Reign in Blood was one of his, as was Walk This Way , the inspired pairing of Aerosmith and Run-DMC that ushered in rap rock. The blame for six albums by the Red Hot Chili Peppers also sits squarely at his door.

In recent decades, Rubin’s lairy reductivism has mellowed into something more akin to sage-like gravitas. The barefoot, bearded enabler is now perhaps most renowned for his work coaxing late-life classics out of Johnny Cash and having a hand in Adele ’s 21 and 25 , and Neil Young’s latest, World Record .

The Creative Act is, then, not an account of Rubin’s ripsnorting career, wrangling 36th takes out of entitled guitar heroes. It names no names. Rather, it is a distillation of the wisdom Rubin has accrued over decades of bringing records to fruition. If it has an unignorable precedent, it is Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies , a set of artistic challenges the British producer concocted alongside Peter Schmidt in 1975 to break through creative blocks ( now an app ).

Anyone with a passing familiarity with Buddhism, management theory or the self-help shelf will also find plenty that feels familiar in Rubin’s modus operandi. That’s not to say that Rubin is unoriginal or indeed wrong, only that occasionally, these 400-odd pages can read a little like “ the 73 unexpected practices of successful creatives ”. The tone is gnomic and epigrammatic, and Rubin’s elevation of artistic endeavour to the highest status of human achievement reverberates with a solemn quasi-religiosity – one befitting a hardback with a fabric bookmark – that is hard to square with his ballsy production work on Jay-Z’s epic banger 99 Problems .

Read through in toto , Rubin’s advice can occasionally seem contradictory. He counsels the artist to live a life that questions all limitations. Later, however, he advises actively embracing some limitations, Dogme-style, before once again placing the artistic life as a higher calling that should be unbounded by rules of any kind, particularly the self-limiting voices in the artist’s own head.

Having “a practice” is a good idea, he says. So is abandoning all routine. Rubin is big on following instinct. He is equally big on letting go of ego in the quest for a fuller flourishing of the work. That can be a particularly tricky circle to square. Does the artist stick to their guns or compromise? The answer seems to be that it depends on the situation. And likewise to some, this book will read as a series of cagey California new age nostrums that bolster the Rubin brand.

But to others, particularly creatives in need of a spur – or anyone in proximity to a client, or loved one, approaching a deadline – The Creative Act has just the right level of confident loftiness to provide succour and useful ways of recontextualising problems.

So, yes: cultivate a beginner’s mind , keep your antennae tuned to “the Source” 24/7, go for a walk . Nothing is real, our consciousness just creates projections . Being famous is not as great as it’s cracked up to be.

Once past these generalities, which may well be revelatory to someone who has not met them before, useful strategies do bubble up, both granular and philosophical. Listening back to a piece of music through speakers is better than listening on headphones. When flowing, keep going. Make the loud bits quiet, and the quiet bits loud, and see what happens.

To a cynical reader, The Creative Act might feel like a series of self-actualising niceties. Until, that is, these are just the prompts you need to hear, when you need to hear them. I’ve underlined rather a lot.

It’s sensible to raise an eyebrow when Rubin, that most commercial of producers, claims to disregard commerce in the service of art. But his words can be seductive. I’m now off to replace my own scarcity mindset with one of abundance . I will strive to make the ecstatic my compass, and see how that goes.

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The Creative Act review: Legendary music producer Rick Rubin has advice for us all

The American music producer and co-founder of Def Jam recordings wants you to harness your inner creative in his new book that's high on existentialism and low on music anecdote

The Creative Act by Rick Rubin is out on January 17 (Canongate, £25)

As a writer and musician, I’m always interested in others’ approach to the creative process. When that someone is legendary music producer Rick Rubin , I’m even more interested. Rubin’s decades-long career has seen him produce a wildly eclectic mix of musicians and bands – everyone from Slayer to Adele by way of Johnny Cash and the Beastie Boys – and that eclecticism suggests a man at home facilitating the creativity of others. 

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Rubin has put all that experience into his new book, The Creative Act , a beautiful, cloth-bound hardback with the intriguing subtitle, A Way of Being . That subtitle hints at what’s inside, as Rubin’s approach is less a practical guide and more of an existential enquiry into the nature of creativity, art and being part of the human race. If that sounds a little ambitious and hifalutin, maybe it is, but Rick Rubin is sincere in his search for what constitutes creativity, and the importance of it in all of our lives. He argues that we’re all creative beings, and that creativity takes a myriad of forms. Part of the problem, he argues, is that most  of us spend our time shutting ourselves off from the universe, from the ways in which we can create.

There follows 400 pages in which Rubin gives well-earned advice on ways to engage with the creative act. The key is leaving ourselves open to the wider forces of the universe, learning what does and doesn’t work for us, trusting in our inner voices, not letting ourselves be swayed by outside influence, but also finding the balance between these extremes.

Indeed, much of The Creative Act is about balance, more than once bringing to mind the existential teachings of Buddhism and other forms of spirituality. Anyone looking for Rick Rubin’s studio-based anecdotes about Paul McCartney or Rage Against the Machine, for example, will be disappointed. The Creative Act is not that kind of book – rather, it’s a deep look at the most fundamental of human impulses.

The Creative Act by Rick Rubin is out on January 17 (Canongate, £25).  You can buy it from  The Big Issue shop  on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

Doug Johnstone is a writer and musician

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The Creative Act by Rick Rubin: A recipe book stocked with laxatives for the blocked artist

The def jam founder has written a fine book, but with a little more auto/biographical content and context it might have been a pop-culture landmark.

Rick Rubin with Paul McCartney. Rubin has been credited him with having a transformational effect on the songwriting of artists he has handled.

Heavy rock and hip-hop connoisseurs will know Rick Rubin as the Long Beach native who started the Def Jam label with Russell Simmons and went on to produce breakthrough recordings for the Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Slayer and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others. By the early 1990s he’d founded American Recordings and diversified into Americana, roots rock and boutique pop. But despite the industry clout Rubin always played the quiet man, the Buddha-like presence whose methods were as curious as they were effective: some clients questioned why they were paying top dollar for a guy who seemed to do little more than lie on a sofa with his eyes closed; others credited him with having a transformational effect on their songwriting.

Whatever your angle, the results are undeniable. As a label boss, A&R overseer and musical psychotherapist, he’s produced a ridiculous number of classic recordings in a diverse field of genres, from LL Cool J to The Cult, Tom Petty, Jay Z, Neil Diamond, System of a Down, Justin Timberlake, Black Sabbath, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Lana Del Rey, Metallica, Ed Sheeran and Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Above all else, he’ll be remembered as the man who rescued Johnny Cash from cultural obsolescence and reframed him as the OG king of outlaw country when the Nashville establishment had put him out to pasture on the county fair circuit.

You’d know absolutely none of this from The Creative Act. The only band that gets a significant mention is the Ramones, and even then, by way of analogy rather than anecdote. There are no studio stories, no industry insider asides, not so much as a single breach of doctor-patient confidentiality. Rubin has always comported himself as more of a holistic thinker — maybe even a mystic — than a deal-maker or technician. A Vanity Fair profile published a year after Johnny Cash’s death detailed how he and the singer would take communion every morning and spend as much time discussing spiritual matters as Louvin Brothers’ songs.

Now Rubin has decided to go full guru. The Creative Act is a recipe book stocked with laxatives for the blocked artist. Gleaned from interviews conducted by Neil Strauss (author of first-person journalism works like The Game and The Truth, as well as ghostwritten assignments for Motley Crue and Marilyn Manson), and distilled into a sequence of 78 elegantly-written short chapters (sample headings: Everyone Is A Creator; The Abundant Mindset; The Experimenter and the Finisher), this book belongs on the same shelf as titles like Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art and Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. It applies practical approaches to the occult art of ideas and inspiration, offering advice on how to maintain momentum on a project, how to deploy craft and graft, and how to navigate the unglamorous completion and editing stages. It is a wise, insightful work, but one that doesn’t shy away from promoting oblique strategies or games of chance in order to rewire a malfunctioning creative mechanism.

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The stories about how works get made and the rituals of the artists who make them are generally exaggerated, and often pure fiction —   Rick Rubin

The one thing it’s not, however, is a rock ‘n’ roll memoir. A chapter named Apocrypha serves as a repudiation of historical hearsay and yarn-spinning. “The stories about how works get made and the rituals of the artists who make them are generally exaggerated, and often pure fiction,” Rubin says. “… We are the unreliable narrators of our own experience. So when an artist creates a work that comes together by an unseen hand, and the process is later analyzed, what we get is more storytelling. This is art history. Art reality is forever unknown.”

Maybe, maybe not. The term apocrypha can also refer to important works excised from the canon. The Creative Act might have been a richer, fuller book if the philosophical material had been braided with accounts of first-hand experience. Rubin has led an extraordinary life. He’s spoken compellingly in interviews, podcasts and documentaries about the creative process: how Jay Z will construct an entire verse over a looped beat without writing down a word of it; how random I-Ching moments can provide artistic epiphanies, such as when Serj Tankian improvised the stunning Why have you forsaken me? section of System Of A Down’s Chop Suey after Rubin suggested he open the first book that came to hand (the New Testament, one presumes). But Rubin the author bypasses such nuggets, favouring the instructive, or rather, suggestive, voice (the phrase “it may be helpful to…” crops up multiple times in the text). This reader would argue that there’s gossip and there are gospels. Christ and the Buddha weren’t shy of employing parables to get a point across. The Creative Act is a very fine book, but with a little more auto/biographical content and context, it might have been a pop culture landmark.

• Peter Murphy is the author of the novels John the Revelator and Shall We Gather at the River (Faber). He performs and records with Cursed Murphy Versus the Resistance.

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Rick Rubin Wants You to Read Sherlock Holmes Before You’re 21

“The earlier the better,” says the record producer and author of the forthcoming book “The Creative Act: A Way of Being.” “The stories are engaging and they train readers to look deeply into all they see. A great primer for awareness practice.”

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What books are on your night stand?

The Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Mitchell. “I Am That: Talks With Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,” edited by Sudhakar S. Dikshit. “The Gift,” by Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky. The I Ching, or “Book of Changes,” translated by Richard Wilhelm (into German) and Cary F. Baynes (from German into English).

What’s the last great book you read?

I’m currently reading “The Secret History of the World,” by Mark Booth and I’m fascinated. The moments where mythology and ancient esoteric beliefs are now finally found in cutting-edge science speaks well for the wisdom of the ages.

Can a great book be badly written?

I don’t think so. Even when I’m wildly interested in the content going in, if the writing doesn’t speak to me I find it impossible to sustain engagement.

Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).

Lately I’ve been listening to audiobooks when taking long beach walks in the morning. Something about tuning into the material so close to waking allows me to access the books’ written world so completely that when I get home I need a few minutes to land back in this life.

Which writers — novelists, playwrights, critics, journalists, poets — working today do you admire most?

Michael Lewis, Michael Pollan, Malcolm Gladwell, Graham Hancock, Stephen Mitchell, Jack Kornfield, Richard Rudd, Walter Isaacson, Jonathan Haidt, David Whyte, Joel Salatin, Alain de Botton and Jane Hirshfield.

What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of?

I love Daniel Quinn’s “The Story of B.” When I mention it few seem to know it. Many more know his novel “Ishmael.” “The Story of B” channels a radical vision of humanity’s past, present and future into the framework of a classic mystery.

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The Creative Act: A Way of Being: The Sunday Times bestseller Hardcover – 17 Jan. 2023

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE FOYLES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn't, he has learned that being an artist isn't about your specific output; it's about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone's life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities. The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distils the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments - and lifetimes - of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.

• Print length 432 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Canongate Books
• Publication date 17 Jan. 2023
• Dimensions 20.3 x 13.3 x 1.19 cm
• ISBN-10 1838858636
• ISBN-13 978-1838858636
• See all details

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Book description, from the back cover, about the author.

Rick Rubin is a nine-time GRAMMY-winning producer, named one of the '100 Most Influential People in the World' by TIME and 'The most successful producer in any genre' by Rolling Stone . He has collaborated with artists from Tom Petty to Adele, Johnny Cash to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys to Slayer, Kanye West to The Strokes, System of a Down to Jay-Z. @RickRubin

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Canongate Books; Main edition (17 Jan. 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1838858636
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1838858636
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 20.3 x 13.3 x 1.19 cm
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Sorry, there was a problem., the creative act: a way of being audible audiobook – unabridged.

• Book Description
• Editorial Reviews

The #1 New York Times bestseller.

"A gorgeous and inspiring work of art on creation, creativity, the work of the artist. It will gladden the hearts of writers and artists everywhere, and get them working again with a new sense of meaning and direction. A stunning accomplishment.”—Anne Lamott

From the legendary music producer, a master at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book many years in the making that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us.

“ I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be.”—Rick Rubin

Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn’t, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone’s life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments—and lifetimes—of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.

About the Author

Excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved..

• Listening Length 5 hours and 45 minutes
• Author Rick Rubin
• Narrator Rick Rubin
• Audible release date January 17, 2023
• Language English
• Publisher Penguin Audio
• ASIN B0B3L8W1JJ
• Version Unabridged
• Program Type Audiobook
• See all details

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How Seriously Should Creatives Take the Rick Rubin Book?

In the new rick rubin book, the creative act: a way of being , it's unclear who or what the producer is writing for..

If you knew nothing of what a Rick Rubin book was intended to be, a reasonable and not at all assumptive leap would carry you almost directly to memoir or studio journal territory. And no one could blame you for it — the rise of rap’s famed "reducer" is an epic on par with the Greek Classics.

A straight-edge punk co-founds an enduring, disruptive, and iconic institution, firmly launching hip-hop’s first commercially viable era from his NYU dorm room with a roster of revered rappers in tow. Reinventing as many careers as he'd established, Rubin quickly became one of music's most decorated and mythologized figures in the following decades. From LL Cool J to Slayer, JAY-Z to Johnny Cash, Adele , Beastie Boys , and Kanye West , there is virtually no gap in genre or era over the last 30 years untouched by Rubin's reductions. But those are not the scrolls the producer chose to unbound in his debut as an author.

The Rick Rubin book we got is entirely devoid of the tasty session secrets many hoped to uncover in its pages. Instead, The Creative Act: A Way of Being   is something of a personal manifesto on the value of art and the nature of creativity, treating the process of making literally anything as sacred work. Across the book's nearly 80 chapters, Rubin meanders along the edges of ideas that, if fully articulated, could prove to be impactful to someone struggling with the development of an efficient and productive workflow in or outside of a creative field.

Sadly, Rubin's musings rarely leave the ethereal plain he's placed all of human creativity on. Any tangible guidance gets muddied in metaphysical framings of complex relationships between awareness, patience, context, identity, originality, and, of course, the cosmos. "An artist casts a line to the universe" is something he actually writes. The respective sections on collaboration, temporary rules, and experimentation prove particularly confounding and brimming with contradictions. And there are few indications as to how Rubin himself has tested his theories in all his years of hit-making and artist-whispering, or what worked for which type of creative and whether it reared the desired results.

The Creative Act and the legion of Rubinites no doubt rifling through its 400-plus pages of floaty philosophizing would benefit greatly from a more grounded presentation of the producer's artistic principles. Some of the most concrete (and genuinely useful) elements arrive about midway through the book in a stretch of chapters on crafting, momentum, breaking the sameness, and completeness. Artists who find themselves categorically stuck in a creative block or derailed by a cognitive obstruction might implement a handful of practicable alterations to their personal workflows gleaned from those pages. They may realize the importance of the respective settings of where their work is done and where it is interpreted. They may decide to tweak a random aspect of the piece to evaluate the strength of its surrounding elements. They may even introduce an arbitrary rule at the onset of their creative pursuit just to see what they can build around it.

But even here, in the most legible run of Rubin's exhausting rumination, it's unclear who or what the producer is writing for. Blue-collar makers tempted by The Creative Act  won't find much in the way of actionable coaching or solutions to common hold-ups. And the religiosity of Rubin's rhetoric buries the intent of his debut under mountains of mysticism, rendering his own wisdom virtually inaccessible to those who don't speak Rubin, and have no idea how to "make the ecstatic your compass."

Working-class creatives aren't typically held up by the limits of their imagination. External factors — resources, upbringing, and the environment in which their work takes place — are far more frequent obstacles to maintaining a verdant and perpetually productive creative state. And Rubin, out of either unintentional neglect or deliberate omission, has little to offer in resolving the uncontrollable outside of suggesting a meditation regiment and fine-tuning one's reception of the infinite.

Without citable case studies, demonstrated technical skills, or any specific examples of how his approaches have produced the outcomes he'd sought out, The Creative Act can only be read as one very privileged and overly-financed man's attempt at plastering a personal spiritual practice onto the art of others. And even if it brings you slightly closer to understanding the mythological minimalism of music's most renowned fly on the wall, it's hard to tell how seriously you should take it.

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The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin (Book Review)

by Julie Gibbons | Mar 26, 2023 | Creative Practice , Featured Posts , Patreon Benefits

I had no idea who Rick Rubin was when I chose this book for our Patreon Book Club. It appeared on my screen courtesy of the algorithms and I chose it 1. based on the cover – yes, I am that person and 2. the three words of interest in the title: creative , act and being .

I learned Rubin was a hotshot music producer shortly after I ordered the book and had in mind someone who looked quite a bit different from the silver-bearded, barefoot individual I’ve since come to recognise. 

Rubin looks like one of my high-school pals, all grown up. We’re of a similar age, although he’s a wee bit older than me. There again, most of my high-school pals were, too. Looking at his photos, I feel something of an affinity, what with the silver locks – most of my old school pals either have no hair or have cut it all off by now, at least that’s true of the boys.

Anyway, the book. It’s lovely.

Here in (not so) Great Britain, the book’s published by Edinburgh’s Canongate and it’s good to know that it’s also printed and bound here.

I have a bit of a thing for cloth-bound books, especially when a ribbon is attached as a ready bookmark. Although I generally don’t enjoy hardback editions because they’re uncomfortable to hold, this 400-odd paged tome wasn’t so uncomfortable. The lack of a dust jacket definitely helps.

The design has a fair bit of Rubin’s minimalist/Zen aesthetic (I read that his home is basically a large space with a good sound system, a comfy bed and little else,) with just a hint of mysticism – the alchemical symbol for the sun dominating both the cover and throughout the chapter breaks.

When it arrived, I was a wee bit jealous. This is what my book would look like. At least one version of it would.

Did Rubin use my words and ideas inside, too? Truth be told, he did!

Not all of them, of course, but what I discovered upon reading was that he articulated some of them super succinctly;

“When we take notice of the cycles of the planet, and choose to live in accordance with its seasons, something remarkable happens. We become connected.”

For the next many chapters, Rubin goes on to articulate his somewhat metaphysical thoughts on the essential nature of the artist as a practitioner of being aware – of noticing. 

He uses the term Source as a reference for the place whence our creative ideas and energy originate. This sits quite well with me as an alternative to the idea of a Divine Geometer. I prefer to think of that Source not as one point of origination, but rather as a realm (of the imaginal) made up of all of the experiences of life, the universe and everything since time began. 

Rubin asks us to consider that our creative ideas don’t live within us but within the imaginal realm. (I wish he’d used this term in his book. I’ve a feeling it would make it more palatable for his more sceptical readers.) It’s down to us as artists to pluck ideas out of that realm in a timely way, he somewhat sagely advises, through the art of noticing/listening/practising awareness.

“The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity. To see past the ordinary and mundane and get to what might otherwise be invisible.”

For those not of a metaphysical bent and expecting some kiss and tell about the bands he’s worked with over the decades, the next few chapters might come as a surprise/disappointment.

This is where one of the big positives about the book comes in handy – the chapters are super short. The paragraphs are, too. The sentences are downright pithy. Finding it all a bit too woo-woo? then skip a few pages, dear reader. This book is made for the times. For those of us with the shortest attention spans and a super big to-do list.

Rubin is clearly a man who accepts the spiritual side of his being as fact. This might stem from the fact that he started meditating as a teen, prescribed to help reduce his stress.

Not long after I started reading the book, I listened to Rubin’s Desert Island Discs interview with the BBC. What a lovely man, I thought. And also, how lucky to have been gifted the positive upbringing/start in life that he had. I don’t know much about Rubin’s life as an adult, but I have an inkling that how he is able to be in the world has a lot to do with his early years.

It might be correlation rather than causation, of course, but I know that being supported in the way he was as a child must play a direct part in how he has been able to act as a vessel in the world and apply his filter of awareness to shape his unique lens of perception.

His wasn’t my story and I struggle with the consequences each and every day. How many kids have the potential to be as creatively successful as Rick Rubin but whose origin story is the complete opposite?

And perhaps this is where my biggest beef with Rubin’s book lies. 

I am a HUGE proponent of practising the art of awareness as a primary act in my creative process. Taking notice, practising awareness, listening with an open attitude and editing my input to support my practices are key factors in my modus operandi.

For much of my day, I seek out beauty, comfort and harmony and greatly enjoy being in alignment with the cosmic order.  I employ playful experimentation and apply limitations where necessary to help me expand creatively.

So much of what Rubin expounds in his book as practical examples of how to be an artist is true to my experience, and a lot of it forms part of my own teachings and yet, and yet …

The Creative Act: A Way of Being leaves me with the impression that Rick Rubin has mastered the art of gliding barefoot through his life, without much fear of cutting himself on the broken remnants of a shattered living room after a monumentally destructive parental episode, or simply a broken Buckfast bottle or ten, discarded on the side of the pavement.

Still, I’d recommend this book to any creative who needs a wee bit of encouragement in their practice.

I’d just add that they should also give a wee bit of thought to who travels through the world barefoot in these times – the folk who happen by accident of birth to be born in the global south and the privileged few who can afford a beachfront property in California.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh? Perhaps I’m being overly judgemental? Perhaps my Shadow is coming out to play and I’m simply jealous that Rubin has produced something of beauty in the world that I covet.

Yes, perhaps.

My conclusion is that the book feels rather self-indulgent overall, even at the same time as it is full of gems for those of us in the creative industries.

It’s as much a manual for life as for making art. But it isn’t a manual. It’s a series of sound bites from the imaginal realm pulled down from the cloud by an artist, Rick Rubin. They may not even be true. He tells us so.

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The Spinoff

Books about 3 hours ago

The unity books bestseller chart for the week ending june 21.

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The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.

First, a quick PSA: Unity Books has a flash new website that lets you search and purchase from both Unity Books Auckland and Wellington – and the search function is impeccable!

1 Long Island by Colm Tóibín (Picador, $38)

Please enjoy this video of Colm Tóibín’s first ever visit to a Costco in the US.

2 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury Circus, $25)

Here are the opening paragraphs from The Spinoff’s glowing review of Lioness : “Ever since Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the word “of” has taken on an indelibly sinister dimension. Offred is the handmaid’s name while she’s in Gilead, meaning she is Of Fred, meaning she is one of his array of properties designed to furnish the distinguished man’s life with attributes that he can’t manage all on his own. 

Late in Emily Perkins’ Lioness, the main character, Therese Thorne, considers: ‘The personal touch had been key to our early success: young entrepreneur with her successful older husband, being a good sport on the yacht. Whether Trevor was there or not, I existed in relationship to him. Sun, moon. Oat, sapling. Wife. Of. Had I started the company on my own, no one would have taken any notice. Even my lucky looks, enough to jailbreak me from my childhood, would not have drawn attention without him.’”

3 Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors (Fourth Estate, $38)

The latest from author of BookTok sensation Cleopatra & Frankenstein. Here’s the blurb for Blue Sisters: “Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister’s death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional – and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realise the greatest secrets they’ve been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.”

4 Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (Granta, $28)

Love this opening for the New York Times review: “The first thing to know about Jenny Erpenbeck’s new novel, Kairos, is that it’s a wallow. I was in the mood for one. It’s a cathartic leak of a novel, a beautiful bummer, and the floodgates open early.”

5 Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (Oneworld Publications, $25)

Look out for a beautiful essay on dystopian fiction on The Spinoff today in which Lynch’s Booker-prize winning sort-of dystopia is discussed.

6 The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin (Canongate, $55)

Welcome back to a stalwart of the top 10. Excellent time of the year to hunker down and drawn on your inner reserves of creative genius.

7 All Fours by Miranda July (Canongate, $37)

A true original has published a truly original novel about radical change amid midlife.

8 James by Percival Everett (Mantle, $38)

Extremely funny, extremely good.

9 Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder (Allen & Unwin, $40)

The first paragraph of a   review on The Guardian sets up this brilliant, brilliant book very well: “In the summer of 2017, Anna Funder found herself sinking under the weight of a to-do list that would be familiar to any working mother: three children; house repairs; elderly relatives; visiting family – all with ‘work deadlines ticking under every waking minute’. Seeking respite from this domestic ‘peak overload’, Funder – a human-rights lawyer whose first nonfiction book, Stasiland, won the Samuel Johnson prize in 2004 and whose novel All That I Am was shortlisted for the Impac Dublin award and the Commonwealth Book prize – is drawn back to George Orwell, a writer she has ‘long loved’. She turns to Orwell’s life and work in the hope of boosting her own flagging writerly mojo, but her attention snags unexpectedly on a previously unremarked absence: the figure of his wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy. ‘How is it that she remains invisible?'”

10 Invisible Doctrine: Understanding Neoliberalism by George Monbiot & Peter Hutchinson (Allen Lane $40)

“Guardian columnist George Monbiot and film-maker Peter Hutchison have set out to lift the veil on this “invisible doctrine”. The result is a passionate, informed polemic that is short but packed with detail and incisive analysis.” Read more here .

1   Wild, Wild Women by Janis Freegard (At The Bay | I Te Kokoru, $25)

Local legend Janis Freegard just launched a gorgeous book of short stories with a series of exuberant endorsements like this one from Sarah Laing: “I loved Janis Freegard’s compulsive and strange stories. Populated by mermaids, punks, tea leaf readers, vintage car lovers and people figuring out their inner fish, these stories crackle with energy, pathos and wit. The women are fierce and don’t always make the right decisions, but they’ll take you on a wildly enjoyable ride.”

2   Interesting Times: Some New Zealanders in Republican China by Chris Elder (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $40)

A big month of releases from THWUP includes this book, the blurb for which reads: “The era of Republican China began with the fall of the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty in 1912, and came to an end in 1949, when Mao Tse-tung declared the People’s Republic of China.

The 37 years in between were marked by power struggles between competing warlords, anti-foreign riots, floods and widespread famine, an eight-year conflict with Japan, and the depredations of an ongoing civil war. For the Chinese people, and for foreigners living in China, these were indeed interesting times.

Some New Zealanders were drawn to China by missionary zeal or humanitarian concern, others by commercial opportunities, still others by political curiosity or simply by their appetite for risk. In this book, famous figures like Rewi Alley, James Bertram and Iris Wilkinson (Robin Hyde) rub shoulders with long-term China hands like the YWCA secretary Agnes Moncrieff and the missionary Alice Cook. Based on a series of interviews carried out in 1985–86, and supplemented by wide reading and archival research, Interesting Times is a fascinating introduction to a group of extraordinary New Zealanders.”

3 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury Circus, $25)

4 Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors (Fourth Estate, $38)

5 Long Island by Colm Tóibín (Picador, $38)

6 A Brilliant Life: My Mother’s Inspiring Story of Surviving the Holocaust by Rachelle Unreich (Hachette, $40)

GoodReads readers are giving this one five stars and reviews like this: “Definitely one of my favourite reads of 2024. The author has great insight. It’s a record of Mira’s life told by her daughter, Rachelle, who interviewed her as a journalist. Mira is a Holocaust survivor. Throughout her life, Mira chose happiness. She never held a grudge, where many of us would. She was like a ray of sunshine. She was shown great kindness and mercy during the war years, from her captors and fellow Jews. This book also taught me a great deal about Jewish customs, a faith I have always respected and admired. At the end of the book, Rachelle describes grief, this is the best description I’ve ever read. This is a book I will reread. Highly recommend.” 

7 Parade by Rachel Cusk (Faber, $37)

Cusk fans all over the world are settling in with crisp white wines hoping that the harsher reviewers are quite, quite wrong. Here’s a snippet from the NY Times ’ appraisal: “Sterile, ostentatious and essentially plotless, Parade is an antinovel, a little black box of a book. It fails the Hardwick Test. The sole burden of an antinovel, the critic Elizabeth Hardwick wrote, is that it must be consistently (‘each page, each paragraph’) interesting.

Parade is set in the art world. Most of its characters are painters or sculptors. They are identified by the same initial — G. One G is a domineering male painter who begins painting images upside down on his canvases. A second G is a female sculptor whose hallmark images, in the manner of the artist Louise Bourgeois, are of ‘giant forms of black spiders, balanced on stiletto-like feet.’”

8 All Fours by Miranda July (Canongate, $37)

9   Brotherless Night by  V. V. Ganeshananthan (Penguin, $32)

Winner of the 2024 Women’s Fiction prize ! Here is the blurb: “Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, as a vicious civil war subsumes Sri Lanka, her dream takes her on a different path as she watches those around her, including her four beloved brothers and their best friend, get swept up in violent political ideologies and their consequences. She must ask herself: is it possible for anyone to move through life without doing harm?”

10 Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck (Granta, $28)

The Spinoff Review of Books is proudly brought to you by Unity Books and Creative New Zealand. Visit Unity Books online today. 

• texas a&m university

Texas A&M inches closer to Men's College World Series title after dropping Kentucky

OMAHA, Nebraska (KTRK) -- The Texas A &M Aggies used a five-run sixth inning on Monday to send the Kentucky Wildcats to an elimination game at the Men's College World Series in Omaha.

Aggies designated hitter Hayden Schott drove in two runs to get the scoring going for either side before Ali Camarillo and Kaeden Kent got A &M to five runs. Texas A &M defeated UK, 5-1.

Aggies pitcher Ryan Prager had a no-hitter in the seventh inning before a base hit broke it up with one out remaining.

Kentucky faces Florida again but in a loser-goes-home matchup on Tuesday. A &M doesn't take the field again until Wednesday at 6 p.m. against either UK or Florida. ESPN will have live coverage.

Texas A &M is 2-0 in the CWS double-elimination tournament.

Aggies' adversity

In a matter of hours, the Texas A &M baseball team lost their best player and one of their best pitchers to season-ending injuries.

Aggies right fielder Braden Montgomery is expected to be a top-five pick in July's MLB Draft. His season ended on a play at home plate in the super regional round vs. Oregon.

Montgomery's Shane Sdao had emerged as a dominant starting pitcher for the Aggies before he was forced to leave his start against the Ducks after just 11 pitches. Yet the Aggies dug deep to make it to the College World Series, and a local product delivered one of the plays of the year in college baseball.

Tompkins High School product Jace LaViolette moved to right field after Montgomery's injury. He needed every bit of his 6-foot-5-inch frame to rob Florida's Cade Kurland of a go-ahead two-run home run in the ninth inning late Saturday night.

"It was a real cool play," LaViolette said.

LaViolette admitted he got a bad read when the ball was first hit. He also acknowledged that the wind helped keep the ball in the park. The breeze also helped the Aggies move into the winner's bracket.

The Aggies will lean on left-hander Ryan Prager to shut down a Kentucky Wildcats' attack that has been unstoppable in the postseason.

Memorial High School product Jackson Appel will be key again for the Aggies behind the plate. The Ivy League transfer from Penn guided three A &M pitchers to a combined 16 strikeouts in the win over Florida.

For more on this story, follow Greg Bailey on Facebook , X and Instagram .

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The Globe and Mail Bestsellers for the week of June 22, 2024

The Bestsellers Lists are compiled by The Globe and Mail from information provided by BookNet Canada’s national sales tracking service, BNC SalesData

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Bestsellers Lists for June 22, 2024

• 📚 Hardcover Fiction
• 📚 Hardcover Non-Fiction
• 📚 Paperback Fiction
• 📚 Canadian Fiction
• 📚 Canadian Non-Fiction
• 📚 Self-improvement
• 📚 Previous Bestsellers Lists

Hardcover Fiction: June 22, 2024

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Hardcover Non-Fiction: June 22, 2024

Paperback Fiction: June 22, 2024

Canadian Fiction: June 22, 2024

Canadian Non-Fiction: June 22, 2024

Juvenile: June 22, 2024

Self-Improvement: June 22, 2024

Cooking: June 22, 2024

Previous Bestsellers Lists

• Bestsellers for the week of June 15: Fiction, Non-Fiction and Historical Fiction
• Bestsellers for the week of June 8: Fiction, Non-Fiction and Romance/Erotica
• Bestsellers for the week of June 1: Fiction, Non-Fiction and Biography
• Bestsellers for the week of May 25: Fiction, Non-Fiction and Mystery

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