ok, I'll start. I really enjoyed "Acrylic Revolution" by Nancy Reyner. Lots of how-tos :-)

I love Ali Edward's Life Artist. It really makes me feel as if I can think of myself as an artist as I tell the stories of my family and our lives. I see the things we do everyday in a much different light because of my desire to record those moments not only in my mind, but on my pages and in the other crafts I do. I also appreciate all you do to foster that creativity. :)

My personal favorite is The Sound of Paper by Julia Cameron. Excellent writing book.

Enter me! I love book books! Favorite how to... most are thrifted and old... I love this one for knitting by mary thomas
http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Thomass-Book-Knitting-Patterns/dp/0486228185

Hi Amy,

I love your book and would love to get a copy of "The Book Book".

My favorite creativity "go-to" book is Ali Edwards's "Life Artist". I have all her books but this one is just a bundle of inspiration to me and can be used for inspiring so many different projects.

Best regards,
Avital

I love both of Hannah Hinchman's books, A Life in Hand and A Trail through Leaves. To draw in, I love Moleskines. I also use them to write in. Your podcast, though, is probably my biggest inspiration. I usually listen to it when I am driving or cleaning.

Books--my second favorite addiction. ;-) Aside from the books mentioned, which I must admit I do own most of, my recent order included: 2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. Been wanting to take a class on this, and just never have a schedule that matches the classes offered, so I am going to give this a shot! It just seems like such a wonderful concept to make a PAIR of socks, and not lose the urge after I have done one.

Do I have to pick? ;-)
Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting without Tears changed the way I viewed knitting. Right now I'm carrying around The Opinionated Knitter as I make my first tomten jacket, but that's in Knitting without Tears, too.

I think my new favorite book is Esther Smith's How to Make Books. The very first tutorial in it is an "instabook". A little bit of folding, tearing, and voila a book! That totally hooked me.

My favorite book about graphic design (and spills over to many of my other creative endeavors) is Design Basics Index by Jim Krause.

My favorite books for inspiration are Cathy johnsons book "Watercolor pencil Magic" and her book called "painting natures detail in watercolor"
but I also really enjoy "Creative Collage for scrapbooks" by Kelly Angard.

Oh, and I just got Mixed Media Nature Journals by LK Ludwig. It is very mixed media and collage centered but I like it a lot too. I forgot to mention it before but I had hit post already. I love doing the artist journal and drawing and painting so these books inspire me to try new things. Some interesting techniques are are www.cre8it.com too.

Wow this is hard to pick since I dabble in different art mediums and crafts.

I'll pick the topic of journaling because I am so happy that I have discovered a different way to journal than the plain old diary. My old diaries used to be a repository for complaints and documentation of negative emotions.

After reading Everyday Matters by Danny Gregory and being inspired I went on to this book which I'll pick as my favorite book for the contest---
"How To Make A Journal of Your Life" by D. Price (Dan Price).

This book is small, short and to the point. It covers topics that are journaling worthy. It has ideas for things to journal about. It also has images of Price's own journals and he journals in a similar style and content to Danny Gregory. I understand that Dan Price and Danny Gregory are friends. This book by Price is a good reinforcement and even more motivation for anyone who liked Danny Gregory's books.

And if you want to read more of Price's own books, check out "Moonlight Chronicles" which is a book format publication of some of his formerly published zines.

It was really hard to pick just one favorite book....

Oh, no fair! Only one book to list? You mean I can't mention "Knitting from the Top Down" by Walker, or any of Zoltan Zabbo's incredible watercolour books? You mean I have to only recommend "Sew What!Skirts" by Denhartog?

Ah, well, I guess I'll live. (Especially since I sneaked a mention of them in there anyways...)

I have found that
Drawing From Life: The Journal as Art by Jennifer New has been an awesome resource for me. I got it around the same time that I got Visual Chronicles and Creative License. The photos in it have really inspired me.

Thanks for the giveaway!
This is a tough choice, but I really love Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. I don't know if that's quite a how-to book, but it always inspires me to write more & better, and thats pretty much what how-to books do don't they?
Merci!

My number one reference book is probably The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd. Her format allows for so much information in such a compact book. I lost my copy last year and found that I simply could not live without a copy and ended up buying it again.

I haven't looked at this one for a while, but it is really a GREAT starter of a quilting book. It is called Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! : The Complete Guide to Quiltmaking by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes.

Quilt Toppings: Fun and Fanciful Embellishments by Melody Crust

I like big picture scrapbooking it made me think in a different way, I also like Visual Chronicles both in the series they also made me take a diff. route in thinking.

Looks like I'm not the first one inspired by "Life Artist" by Ali Edwards. It's not really a nitty-gritty how-to book, but right now it is my go-to book for inspiration... for now.

I have to admit, I'm fairly new at doing all this creative stuff (since I am an engineer at heart). So I am loving all the suggestions, stories, and links you have on your podcast. Thanks.

If I can't chose Lynne Perrella's first book maybe I would pick Kaffe Fassett's book Welcome home that I don't own but would love to find secondhand some day. I just think his home is so full of colors, collections, roses and inspiration and his projects always make me think "I want to do that too" :-)

Recommended!

What a great idea, loved reading everyones favorite books! :-)

I just discovered D.I.Y. Kids by Ellen and Julia Lupton. So fun and we are very inspired to try out EVERYTHING in it!