Steal Like An Artist Reshaped My Reading Life

Throughout this course I have grown tremendously as both a person and a writer. The knowledge I gained because of Dr. A's Composition 123 class is invaluable to me. Every other English class I have taken throughout my life has only hindered and halted my love of reading and writing, but this course re-ignited passions I thought had long burned out. Austin Kleon's Steal Like an Artist reshaped my perceptions, and Pat Conroy's My Reading Life changed my writing.
One way Kleon's Steal Like an Artist reshaped my perceptions is through his self-care advice. Kleon advises artists to be healthy and boring in order to have the ability to devote everything to art. For instance, Kleon states that "it takes a lot of energy to be creative. You don't have that energy if you waste it on other stuff" (119). Kleon's advice allowed me to realize how terribly unhealthy I had let myself become in the past two years, and inspired me to make a change for the benefit of myself and my art. I quit partying, I eat healthier, and I am making an effort to exercise. I found Kleon's work instrumental to my personal growth.
I found Conroy's rigorous approach to understanding reading and writing inspiring. For example, Conroy recalls his mother saying to him, "'Look it up, Pat,' Mom said. 'If we don't know a word, we can't understand the sentence'" (8). I found Conroy's mother's drive to understand texts inspiring. I used to skip over words in sentences I did not understand; I used context clues to imply the meaning of a word, but doing so inhibited my ability to fully comprehend the word and apply to my own writing. Thanks to Conroy's writing I now analyze words I am unfamiliar with; this has allowed me to expand my vocabulary and better apply new words to my