Ruby in the Sky

I have a way of making my favorite books sound like drugs, don’t I? The pink stash is my little nickname for the stack of inspirational books I keep on my vanity. Technically, they don’t all have pink covers, but looking at the general colors of book covers, this is a lot of them in one place. I keep these books close, because they are a reliable source of inspiration on even the worst of days, and every time I open them anew, I take something new away from it. I figured it would be selfish to keep my bibles to myself, so today I present to you: my all-time favorite inspirational books, and why I like them, explained to you in a way that will not make sense at all, because inspiration is hard to pin-point.

It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be by Paul Arden

I think a lot of you will have seen this book someplace or another, as they used to have stacks of them at Urban Outfitters (I’m not entirely sure if they still do), and I’m pretty sure shops like Waterstones’ also gave it a prime position in their windows and/or charts. What I love about this book is that it’s no-nonsense. Officially, this book is meant for advertisers, but it can be applied to any creative outlet, which also makes it applicable to life. Isn’t everything we ever do searching for our identity, and isn’t creativity a huge part of that?

Tranquilista by Kimberley Wilson

This book, for me, is a more obvious choice. Kimberley Wilson is a business-woman with passion and spirit, who in this book tries to guide us all towards our inner goddess. Sounds a bit too woolly for you? In my opinion, it’s not too bad, and I have always been very interested in eastern religion and mindfulness anyway, so the whole thing doesn’t bother me much. This book has mindfulness, business and style. What more can you ask for?

#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso

This book was all over the place last year, so I’m assuming most of you have heard of it. I love this for a similar reason I love Tranquilista: strong, independent women talking of their succes. What’s more inspiring than that for a young, ambitious girl?

Love, Tanya by Tanya Burr

This book only came out a couple of weeks ago, so I guess it’s only fair that I haven’t read it cover to cover yet. But it completely fits the genre, and what I read was promising. Tanya has millions of loyal subscribers, a bubbly personality and, as far as I can tell, a pretty successful life overall. Anyone who can make their (and/or your) dreams come true is a great source of motivation to me.

Style and Beauty by Lauren Conrad

I don’t remember when or why I started loving Lauren Conrad, but it has been a long time since. I have read the complete L.A. Candy series, but I stopped halfway the Fame Game, because I kind of outgrew it. When a little later however I found out about her lifestyle-y books, I knew I wanted to read those, too. I got Beauty as a present, and I loved it, but it was more beauty-based (I know, that title kind of gave that away). I wanted more, so I bought Style too. They’re not exactly cheap, but I haven’t regretted it ever. Kind of way girly, but sometimes we just need to let out that doll-loving, occassionally superficial feminine side.

Steal like an artist by Austin Kleon

This book contains 10 basic rules of creativity. There’s really nothing else to say about this, other than that I love it and it kind of appealed to my itch to art. Yes, I just made that up. *dramatic voice* just leave me be okay!

Well, this was my flimsy attempt to explain why I love these books. I hope you enjoyed it despite the crazy mess of words!

Which books inspire you?

Love, Ruby