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  • The Imagination Muscle

  • By: Albert Read
  • Narrated by: Albert Read
  • Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
  • 3.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

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The Imagination Muscle

By: Albert Read
Narrated by: Albert Read
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Summary

For some, the imagination is a luxury in the modern age; something which is by turns elusive, difficult to employ and better left to others. But what is it to imagine exactly? How do we go about it, and why is it so important that we imagine for ourselves?

In this insightful and life-affirming book, Albert Read puts the imagination back at the forefront of our lives. Not merely a nebulous concept reserved for artists and creatives, it is a muscle - an essential faculty of the mind to be trained and developed over a lifetime. It is boundless in its potential, infinitely rewarding and central to human achievement.

Spanning pre-historic times through to the twenty-first century, The Imagination Muscle explores the genesis of ideas - from Thomas Edison's serial embracing of failure to Jane Jacobs' vision of how we should build cities together; from Steve Jobs' approach to office design to the Japanese concept of Ma. Touching on art, music, film, literature, science and entrepreneurship, this book examines how the imagination has evolved - in shape, power and pace - through the millennia.

Albert Read reveals how we can harness the imagination in our day-to-day lives and why, in the new Age of Technology, it is more pressing than ever that we do so. Discover where to find ideas, how to foster skill in observation and connection, and how to be more attentive to the fluxes of our own minds.

After all, as Read expertly outlines, the imagination is our supreme gift, our biggest opportunity, our greatest source of fulfilment and our most vital asset for the future.

©2023 Albert Read (P)2023 Hachette Audio UK
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Critic reviews

'Beautiful, moving, profoundly imaginative in itself - this book is as entertaining as it is relevant and practical.' (Alain de Botton)

'A sparkling romp through all the sunniest and most positive-feeling corners of the mind. A guidebook to free-thinking... A hymn to the capacity for delight.' (Adam Nicolson)

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Where are all the women?

I did enjoy it, although the history lessons did feel like they were filling up the word count.
But the lack of references to women 'thought innovators' was pretty distracting. I'm not writing that to win points. I just seem to remember being influenced by female creatives throughout life, not just Thomas Edison - Picasso types.
A resource for anyone looking to understand how creativity and imagination inspire our lives, just delivered a tad old-fashionably.

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