The War of Art: Winning the Inner Creative Battle by Steven Pressfield

It doesn’t take you on a long, tedious journey across a desert without a palm tree, but it firmly squeezes you inside a dense jungle.

“Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.”

I am not very big on nonfiction books. Although I’ve decided to read them this year, I still very much prefer fiction. This book was not on my TBR list, nor did I know the writer. I came across this book while streaming from a YouTube channel named ‘Life of Reza,’ whose host makes low-key motivational, aesthetically pleasing videos. I was watching one such video where she spoke about this book, stating that it ignited her motivation for creativity, and I thought, why don’t I pick it up? I am at a stage where I’m focusing on creativity and need to consume such stuff.

This book is an easy read—simple vocabulary. References are limited so as not to throttle the reader. I can’t say it’s an academic book. Although few references to surveys and studies have been made, the writer did not delve deep into the details.

The most exciting part of this book is that it ignites something unique inside everyone. It doesn’t ask much from you, just a bit of realization of the wonder of being a human. It speaks about the concept of ‘Resistance’ that stops humans from achieving more considerable heights, emphasizing that success is internal and not hierarchical.

The best part of the book is that it is concise and compact. It doesn’t take you on a long, tedious journey across a desert without a palm tree, but it firmly squeezes you inside a dense jungle. You have time to enjoy the beauty, but the next stop is right there.

The reason many nonfiction books fail (fiction fails many times too – but that is because of laziness, lack of creativity, and overconfidence with the writer) is that they drag it too much over 400+ pages repeating the same thing iteratively and end up falling from the hands of a dozing reader.

The writer’s ability to convey simple lessons compactly makes this book a recommended TBR for everybody’s list.

Did it blow my mind? No. But I feel lucky to have read this in the most critical phase of my life.