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maya sheth

art, reading, and creativity

value Adventure›Creativity
subject How to live›Language & craft›Making
tags creativity
created 2026/04/17 modified 2026/09/19

Art

Reading

#followup/book-rec

  • A reading list exploring the role of the novel — Public Books
  • The 50 best contemporary novels under 200 pages — Literary Hub
  • On reading more than one book at a time, and how doing so is a "form of input for a collage" of ideas that creates conversation between different works — Austin Kleon
  • The Writer's Library — Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager (print): the authors you love on the books that changed their lives
    • Laila Lalami: The Moor's Account (fictionalized memoir of a Moroccan slave in the 16th century, Pulitzer finalist); The Other Americans (novel on the impact of a hit-and-run death of a Moroccan immigrant); Caleb's Crossing — Geraldine Brooks (novel about a Native American attending Harvard); Salman Rushdie — Midnight's Children, The Moor's Last Sigh (mixes language; the former is about partition)
    • Susan Choi: Alice Munro short stories (doesn't include anything not absolutely necessary); Donald Barthelme (postmodernist, fun and unusual stories); The Wars — Timothy Findley (canonical Canadian novel); Philip Roth — Everyman
    • Michael Chabon & Ayelet Waldman: My Side of the Mountain — Jean Craighead George; Julie of the Wolves; Island of the Blue Dolphins; the Scholastic Book Club; Ian McEwan — Atonement; Dissident Gardens and The Fortress of Solitude — Jonathan Lethem
    • Maaza Mengiste: Beneath the Lion's Gaze (Ethiopian war novel); Trieste — Daša Drndić (about Nazi occupation of Italy); Aminatta Forna — The Memory of Love (about three men in Sierra Leone); What We Owe — Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde (translated from Swedish, by a Swedish-Iranian author)
    • Vendela Vida: And Now You Can Go; Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name; The Lovers
  • On finding treasure in trash, and building libraries from books found in the garbage — Austin Kleon
  • Why read novels?: is it performative social capital, useful social context, entertainment, a way to explore your thoughts, or just the best thing you can do with your time? — Dynomight
  • Insights into the art of translation — not a skill likely to be overtaken by algorithms just yet — New York Times
  • Find the books set closest to you
  • Find a book by reading just the first page... goes against my habit of extensive research into a book's plot and style before reading it, but would be a good spontaneity challenge

Creativity and writing

  • Writing prompts for when inspiration is needed — Poets & Writers
  • More creative and wonderful writing prompts — Bernadette Meyer
  • Jake Kahana, Make-Believe newsletter (issue 033, 2021-08-28):
    • On ideas as seeds: we often climb metaphorical trees without thinking about the years of time and precise care that went into their growth — "it is the vision of the tree that fuels the work of the seed" — if you want to sell someone on the fruit and the shade, talk about the shovel and the watering can too
    • On the value of fiction: "Make-Believe — two verbs that together make a noun." Fiction is contagious and underrated; a business or history book is often far less relatable in its emotion and expressive language than a monster story or make-believe world
  • How to deconstruct the world: don't believe everything you hear, read, and watch — a guide to puncturing received ideas about culture by thinking like Jacques Derrida — Psyche
  • A glimpse into the world of screenwriting, told through the story of one of its masters, Scott Frank — The New Yorker
  • Recommended by Austin Kleon, an essay on the inherent tension between creating and sharing your creations by Tim Kreider: the difference between the need to be paid attention to and the desire to connect — "Look at me, everybody" vs. "You're not the only one"
  • High school students got some rare advice on writing from the usually stoic Cormac McCarthy — Lit Hub

Miscellaneous

  • Cool resource for learning music theory
  • Positive Lexicography: a collection of "untranslatable" words about well-being. I love how the precision of a language so deeply reflects both its connection to the physical world and the spirituality of its speakers. Some examples that resonated:
    • Tūrangawaewae (noun, Māori): literally, a place to stand; a place where we feel rooted, empowered, and connected
    • Aqilokoq (noun, Inuktitut): gently falling snow
    • 居場所 or Ibasho (noun, Japanese): 'Whereabouts'; a place where one belongs, fits in, can be oneself
    • Hanyauku (noun, Rukwangali): to walk on toes across hot sand
    • ἐντελέχεια or entelékheia (noun, Greek): the complete realization and final form of potentiality; the conditions under which a potential phenomenon becomes actualized
  • Eunoia an(other) archive of words from other languages without obvious English translations
  • An archive of Word Play, a publication dedicated to clever linguistic manipulations — e.g. Issue 2, 1994, a compilation of two-consonant sentences: "Wow," we roar, "we are aware we wore wire a wry way. We're a wee raw. We rue!"
  • Sketchplanations — illustrated explainers of everyday concepts
  • An alphabet of edible flowers
  • A visual explainer of the insanity of the English language... and spelling bees — Reuters
  • A User Manual for Your New Home Alarm System, D.O.G. — McSweeney's
  • A highly relatable article on the addictiveness of the NYT Spelling Bee (and other similarly catchy word puzzles) — Lit Hub