Customer Reviews

Releasing the Creative Spirit : Unleashing the Creativity in Your Life

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I am a great admirer of Dan Wakefield's work, both as a novelist, and as a spiritual/self help writer - his bare-knuckle honesty easily makes him one of my favorite authors in that latter catagory. I have actually met Wakefield on a few different occassions when he has done book signings and talks around the Indianapolis area, and I have found that in addition to being a fine writer, he is quite a nice guy too! When I saw that a new Wakefiled book called "Releasing the Creative Spirit" was being released, I was eager to get my hands on a copy. However, once I DID get my hands on a copy...I realised that I'd had my hands on a copy all along!!! What on Earth am I talking about??? Well, this supposedly "new" book is actually a word-for-word reprinting on an earlier Wakefield book, 1996's "Creating From the Spirit"! A new publisher (the original was published through Random House) has simply given the book a new title, slapped on some more "modern" looking cover art - and marketed the book as if it were an all-new product! Even in the credits/copyright page for the "new version" it gives the copyright date as being 2001, with no clue given that this is actually a previoulsy-published work from seven years earlier! I mean, this is not even an updated or newly-revised edition of "Creating From the Spirit" - I have compared the two books side by side, and it is the EXACT same text from the 1996 edition! (funnily enough, Wakefield even makes reference at the end of Chapter One that the book is called "Creating From the Spirit"...and that's even in the "new" version!) How does this rate as an actual book? Quite well I must say - this book is an excellent resource for creative artists (writers, musicians, poets, actors, painters, dancers), particularly the more spiritually-minded artist. On the positive side; this reprinting/repackaging is at least of a very high qulaity, with easy-to-read print, strong binding, and better quality paper than the original paperback edition. Please read my review of the original book ("Creating From the Spirit") for a more in-depth view of the actual text (I remember that I rated it at 4 stars). While I remain an admirer of Wakefield and his work, this book seems like not much more than a scam to sell Wakefield fans the same book twice! (What's next? A new title and cover for his popular novel, "Going All the Way"?) Why else was the title AND cover art (not to mention the copyright/publishing date!) changed, if not to give the false appearance of a "new" and different book? Well, that's what happened to me folks, I bought the same book twice thinking that I was recieving a new Dan Wakefield book - and just to make matters worse...the new edition is more expensive than the original! Well, my advise would be to buy this if you have not previously read "Creating From the Spirit" - it really is a fine book! But, if you already have "Creating" in your collection, there is no reason to purchase it all over again...like I did!