The Imagination Muscle,New

Beautiful, moving, profoundly imaginative in itself this book is as entertaining as it is relevant and practical' ALAIN DE BOTTON'Anyone who has an imagination that is, everyone should read this book' EDWARD ENNINFUL'An extraordinary book an elaborate cabinet of curiosities' SPECTATORFor 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 lifeaffirming 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 prehistoric times through to the twentyfirst 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 daytoday 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.