Here’s one you must get your hands on, and soon. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel Pink is on my top ten nonfiction of all time list. Those out there who know me know I have little patience for nonfiction as a rule, but here’s your exception.
Most of us grew up memorizing poems in school. Soon poets will rule the world. I can’t help getting a little misty about this.
“We are moving from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computerlike capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and society built on the inventive, empathetic, big-picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age.”
Pink, bless his heart, even says that an MFA is the new MBA. He also includes exercises for those left-brainers who might need a nudge in the Right direction. Check out his blog and site here.
In addition to making me feel a tad better about my non-mathematical, right-brained self, A Whole New Mind also gives me hope for my lovely daughter Emily who’s working diligently through a Creative Writing major. Maybe she won’t have to wait tables after all.
P.S. – If you’re making a bedside stack of winter reading, put this one on top. Here are two more that should go just underneath:
The Rise of the Creative Class (Richard Florida)
Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)
No Telling 
My question – how's your creativity been for this NaNoWriMo? 🙂 M
Oh my, I was just thinking of a post about making way for the B type personality and along come this… Pinks post for today is …doing the right thing wronger is better than doing the wrong thing righter… but we keep on doing the wrong thing righter instead of the other….
ummm food for contemplation. I'm going to have to chew on this for a while and see where it all fits in.
One of my favorite non-fiction books of all time, coincidentally enough, is Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain.
You've motivated me to write a post about good non-fiction books (since that's mostly what I read anyway – sorry, Monda). 😉
Do you have to be left-handed to be right-brained??? (I'm kidding…a little)
I guess I have to wait a few more centuries for my type (let's call it the Type C personality) to rule the world.
My feelings about nonfiction reflect yours — I think I deserve college credit for every nonfiction book I finish — but my goal this year is to read one every month and you have made my December decision a no-brainer.
Amuse Me, right now I have around twenty short stories that may or may not be related, all told in different voices. It's mayhem.
Dakota, I might be officially addicted to Pink's blog now.
Kathi! He discusses that book, and scads of others, in his end chapters. I've put two stars by that one now that you've given it a thumbs-up.
Saphron, bless your nonfiction heart. I generally have the worst time slogging through even the best of them. Pink uses story to progress his points, so that helped.
Peevish, this is a good pick for folks like us. What will we read in January?
There's another interesting book out called The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution, by Denis Dutton, which discusses the very tantalizing and plausibly argued notion that our urge to create and to appreciate creative work is a trait that has been selected by evolution, because it actually serves our survival. It's a wonderful notion, even if Mr. Dutton's writing, in my opinion, embodies all the worst, obfuscating qualities of academese. To skip the pain of slogging through the entire book (Mr. Dutton does NOT write from the right side of his brain) but to enjoy his refreshing ideas, you can visit this link for an interview with him on the NPR radio show On Point: http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/03/art-and-evolution
Are you certain this is nonfiction?
Yay, you liked it! I always feel good when you like books I like–you have such good taste!
Honestly, I wish the whole dept. would read it–it might change our teaching/whole way of looking at the world and what we do.
Looks like you're kickin it on NaNo. I'm about to begin the last of my Amtrak pushes!
Many thanks for that, from down the bottom of the world. I hear that there's a trend for corporations to hire MAs instead of MBAs. If I had a god, I'd pray to it that this be so.
I'll look the book up (I'm working as a librarian now, yay!, and am coming home with twenty books a day). This is one I'll read, just because your blog's given me somuch pleasure. If it stinks, i won't tell you.
Al.