Low page count, big type, broad spaces between the lines, and lots of cartoons. As MacLeod cheerfully admits in the beginning, this is more of an extended blog post than a book, so there's not much sense in buying it when you can finish the thing in about half and hour while sitting in the Barnes and Noble cafe.

Ignore Everybody is a lively self-help pep talk for people who want to achieve some kind of success in a creative field. MacLeod was an artist in New York who paid the bills by working in an advertising agency, and from this archetypal vantage point he managed to collect a few gems of good advice: do your own work diligently, don't care what other people think about you, don't waste your energy worrying about selling out. Basically, don't buy into the whole adolescent idea of the romantic artist who wows naysayers with a single burst of effortless genius. It's nothing that hasn't been said before, but since there are new eighteen year-olds coming on line all the time it can't hurt to have it said again.

The one novel detail in Ignore Everybody is MacLeod's cartoons. These are sarcastic line-drawing doodles originally done on the backs of business cards about how hard it is to make art and/or get laid in New York City. Throughout the book MacLeod comes back to his business card cartoons as a case study of how to make it in the art world. The fact that they were done spontaneously, for his own amusement, with no thought of pleasing anyone else or achieving commercial success is the reason why they became so successful and he became famous as the back-of-the-business-card guy. The what? The hunh? The book seems to take for granted that we've all heard of the back-of-the-business-card guy and are curious to hear how he made it so big. So add to MacLeod's list another useful piece of advice for aspiring creative types: always overestimate your own importance. ( )

One of the best books I've read this year - Hugh MacLeod is creative, hilarious and wise with his advice to all of us creative folks. You can read my full review and interview with MacLeod here: http://www.laurareviews.net/2009/06/l... ( )