Interview with Niall Kishtainy, author of The Infinite City: Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London
Niall Kishtainy, author of The Infinite City: Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London recommends a great group of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Niall's book:
Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The Infinite City: Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London
London is a city of dreamers. A city of possibility and experiment. A city of fervent imaginings and courageous aspirations. For centuries, it has been the capital of utopian thought. The Infinite City tells this history for the first time.
In his soaring new book, Niall Kishtainy draws us into the imaginative worlds of Thomas More, the Diggers, William Morris and Extinction Rebellion protestors. He introduces us to thinkers like Thomas Spence who threw coins stamped with the words ‘YOU FOOLS’ into the alleys of Holborn. To Ada Salter who was the first woman borough councillor in London and ignited the Bermondsey Revolution. To ninety-two-year-old Dolly Watson who became the queen of Claremont Road in Leytonstone during the Reclaim the Streets protests in the 1990s. These are inspiring tales of people who drew might from the city around them and fought for their ideologies in an increasingly transforming world.
Beginning in the sixteenth century and stretching from the contemporary transformation of the East End docklands to the COVID lockdowns, The Infinite City shows how London’s spirit has been one of visionary imagination amid relentless change and innovation.
Buy On:
Easons €28.00
Bookshop.org UK £23.75
Bookshop.org US $30.68
Blackwells £20.00
Waterstones £21.99
Wordery $30.86
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
Fearless Creating: A Step-by-Step Guide To Starting and Completing Your Work of Art by Eric Maisel. Description from Wordery: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Fearless Creating by Eric Maisel is a wise and practical guide to making real one’s creative vision, whether as a writer, artist or musician. It’s based on deep psychological insights about how to overcome the blocks that people commonly encounter when pursuing big creative projects.
Fearless Creating: A Step-by-Step Guide To Starting and Completing Your Work of Art
For writers, painters, or performers in any field, new hope for overcoming creative blocks and finishing the art of their dreams.
The blank page, empty canvas, or uncarved stone will often fill artists with dread. But so may the thought of finishing, showing, or even selling their work. It is in this 'artistic anxiety' that creative blocks begin.
With an understanding that could only be gained through years of experience in counseling artists, writers, and performers, Eric Maisel, Ph.D. discusses each stage of creation-wishing, choosing, starting, working, completing, selling--and the anxieties particular to each. He then shows how these inhibiting tensions can be turned to artistic advantages, how truth and beauty arrive in the work of art precisely because, and only when, anxiety has been understood, embraced, and resolved.
Fearless Creating guides the reader, whether an experienced artist or someone just starting out, past the pitfalls that appear in each stage of the process. By following Dr. Maisel's exercises related both to the world at hand and the ongoing struggles of artistic life, readers will emerge from this book with a completed work of art and a new perspective on their potential to be a fearless creator.
Buy On:
Blackwells £17.32
Wordery $20.98
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
I enjoyed The Paradox of Choice – Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz. Based on cutting-edge behavioural research, Schwartz shows how more choice across various areas of life might actually be making us more anxious and less satisfied.
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
In the spirit of Alvin Toffler's Future Shock, a social critique of our obsession with choice, and how it contributes to anxiety, dissatisfaction and regret. This paperback includes a new preface from the author. Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401(k), everyday decisions-both big and small-have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented. As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction.
But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis, anxiety, and perpetual stress. And, in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains at what point choice-the hallmark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish-becomes detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz shows how the dramatic explosion in choice-from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs-has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution. Schwartz also shows how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse. By synthesizing current research in the social sciences, Schwartz makes the counter intuitive case that eliminating choices can greatly reduce the stress, anxiety, and busyness of our lives. He offers eleven practical steps on how to limit choices to a manageable number, have the discipline to focus on those that are important and ignore the rest, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices you have to make.
Buy On:
Easons €16.79
Bookshop.org UK £11.39
Bookshop.org US $15.99
Blackwells £10.62
Waterstones £11.99
Wordery $16.69
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Boxset by Douglas Adams. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
I loved The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Boxset
Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog find excitement and adventure wherever they go in Enid Blyton's most popular series.
Five On A Treasure Island
A shipwreck off Kirrin Island! But where is the treasure? The Famous Five are searching for clues - but they're not alone ... Someone else has joined the treasure hunt.
Five Go Adventuring Again
A thief at Kirrin Cottage! Who can it be? The Famous Five think they know - but they need proof! Then they find an old map and an unusual hiding place...
Five Run Away Together
Who's been on George's Island? And what is locked in the mysterious trunk hidden on Kirrin Island? The Famous Five think they're on the trail of smugglers - until they hear a child scream...
This 70th anniversary edition features the Classic editions of the first three Famous Five adventures in one volume and contains the original cover art and inside drawings by Eileen Soper.
Buy On:
Easons €44.80
Bookshop.org UK £42.75
Bookshop.org US $18.60
Blackwells £45.00
Waterstones £45.00
Wordery $55.56
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
Paper, definitely. For me, there’s no substitute for the feel of a real book!
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
The Broadway Bookshop
The Broadway Bookshop in Hackney in East London. Small but perfectly formed, it has great collections of fiction and non-fiction, expertly selected by its friendly and knowledgeable staff.
Many thanks to Niall for recommending a great group of books! Please don't forget to check out The Infinite City: Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: HarperCollins Publishers (The Infinite City: Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London), Penguin Random House (Fearless Creating: A Step-by-Step Guide To Starting and Completing Your Work of Art), HarperCollins Publishers Inc (The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less), Pan Macmillan (The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Boxset).
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