Magic. What do you think of when you hear the word? Men in tuxedos waving silk scarves? A boy with a zigzag scar on his forehead? A card game played in the corners of comic book shops?To me magic is what creativity feels like when it’s working properly. It feels like a tiny tear in the shiny gloss of everyday life where something not of this world can sneak in. And it’s something I have spent my whole life seeking.
Elizabeth Gilbert knows a lot about creativity. She makes a living as a writer so it's something that she grapples with daily but she's also given Ted Talks on the subject, discussed it in plenty of interviews and on her Facebook page, and now she's written a book about it. Like me, my mom is a big fan of Gilbert so when I told her that the book Big Magic was coming out on a certain day, she went out after work on that day, bought two copies, came straight to my place and gave me one of them. It made my week. I've now read the book twice, the second time going through with pink, blue, and yellow highlighters (because they match the cover of the book) to pick out what I think are the juiciest bits of wisdom.
When I mention her name in conversation, sometimes people don't know who I'm talking about - until I mention that she wrote Eat Pray Love. Though that's her most well known book, she's also written two novels (her newest, The Signature of All Things is brilliant), a biography, another memoir, a collection of short stories, and countless articles and essays. Her books have been best-sellers, she has won numerous awards, and Eat Pray Love was turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts
