CREATIVITY IS NOT A TALENT.

"Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating." - Austin Kleon starts his tiny little yellow book "Show your work!" with this quote from John Cleese. A book full of nice stories around creativity and sharing creativity. One of my favorite is this: "We´ve all read stories of near-death experiences changing people´s lives. When Georg Lucas was a teenager, he almost died in a car accident. He decided "every day now is an extra day," dedicated himself to film, and went on to direct Star Wars".

Or this one:
"I love meeting my online friends  >>IRL.<< (IRL = in real life.) There´s never any small talk - we know all about one another and what one another does. We can just sip beer or some other social lubricatn and talk about big ideas. There´s been a few times that I´ve asked people whaat they think the best thing about being online is, and they´ll point around the table and say, >>What we´re doing here.<<""

So "Show your work!" is not a big book. It´d does not unveil the secrets of creativity or a creative. You don´t read through it, with a wow in your face and a fascinated mind about the authors ideas. It´s not mind blowing, no.
Kleon is open, honest and fair. He writes what he thinks a creative should do and what not - especially in times of social media, collaboration and crowdsourcing. He gives away the way he works - day by day. If you follow him on twitter you can watch every day how he is working - on his creative work, on his life as an artist and author. And in all this tiny little tips... there is some wisdom. So, yes "Show your work!" is an easy read ... and surprisingly there are many pages and phrases where you stop and start thinking about your own life and work. And that´s exactly what a good book should do. No matter how big it is.