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Reviewed January 2018

This book is brief, visually rich and full of wisdom, based on a speech successful author Neil Gaiman made to the Philadelphia University of the Arts in May 2012. That speech (just under 20 minutes) can be viewed online at this page – https://vimeo.com/42372767. Chip Kidd did the graphic design – in an attempt to look edgy graphically (e.g. white text on a pale blue background), it can be very difficult to read in dim light. Despite the speech being aimed at artists and writers, it still has good advice that can be of benefit to software developers, both at the start of a career and during it. It is a hardbacked book and looks like it could also have been entitled The Ladybird Guide to being a Creative. Kevlin Henney suggested I provide a favourite quote from the book. I went through the book again and I came up with seven. My favourite quote is at the start –“This book is for anybody who is looking around and thinking Now What?” – and it expands on that throughout the book. Overall I enjoyed this book and intend to have it on-hand for future reference.