Not the absolute best books in the field, but still worth checking out.
 

Jill Badonsky

  The Nine Modern Day Muses.
There are two ways of writing a creativity book. One is the serious school. This is serious business, so it ought to look like a serious business book. Quite so. It's the sort of thing we did with our Creativity and Innovation for Managers. On the other hand you can go for a wacky, slightly weird approach. After all this is creativity - and that's what you see when you pick up the Nine Modern Day Muses. But don't be put off too soon - this is an entertaining book to read, and it has plenty of useful creativity advice. It isn't aimed specifically at business, it's about creativity in general, but something we keep having to come back to when giving training in creativity is that there is no dividing line. The same creativity that gives you a good turn of phrase or an beautiful detail in a picture also provides the solution to that business problem. (That's not to say a good artist is necessarily a good business person. The creative process is the same, but the person making use of it is very different.) Something we always stress when talking about creativity is the need to break out, to see things differently. So take the challenge - get some inspiration from the Nine Modern Day Muses for your business creativity. New 26 October 2003

Paul Birch & Brian Clegg

Business Creativity.  
A brief introduction to business creativity in a simple, interactive form. A good taster. Also available in Polish and Portuguese (click More for details). Out of print, but available from Amazon Marketplace (under 'More Buying Choices') after clicking the shop button.

Robert Alan Black

 Broken Crayons: Break Your Crayons and Draw Outside the Lines
This book has been around a while, but the approach is interesting enough to make it worth adding to your list. It uses the metaphor of unwrapping crayons and breaking up the core to provide a guide for both individual and group creativity. The analogy of the broken crayons is used effectively to emphasize that to be creative you need to do things differently - breaking barriers both imagined and real.  Updated 7 November 2005

Anthony Blake & John Varney

LogoVisual Thinking: A guide to making sense
An interesting introduction to using the powerful LVT technique to group, structure, select from and refine ideas. Not yet available from Amazon - click the More button to see how to get hold of a copy. New 28 June 2004

J. Richard Block & Harold E. Yuker

Can You Believe Your Eyes?
The optical illusion has always provided fuel for the parts of the mind that like to deal with ambiguities. Block and Yuker's book is packed with examples of such illusions and goes into some depth explaining their working and their appeal. A good creativity diversion.

Can You Believe Your Eyes?

Edward de Bono

The Five Day Course in Thinking.
de Bono laid a lot of the groundwork for modern creativity theory, inventing the term lateral thinking. This early book is not a business creativity text, but can be thought of as a course of exercises to get the brain working in a more creative fashion.

Lateral Thinking.
The book that put Edward deBono into the Oxford English dictionary with his term Lateral Thinking. It is a dry and, at times, difficult to follow book but offers an insight into deBono's thinking and creativity. New 13 January 1999

Teach Yourself to Think.
Thinking is the most fundamental skill. This book provides a clear, easy-to-follow five-stage structure as a framework for thinking, which aims to broaden the ability to respond to and cope with a vast range of situations. As usual with de Bono it isn't a thrilling read, but gets the point across. New 13 January 1999

Teach Yourself to Think.

Water Logic/I am Right, You are Wrong.
An interesting dissertation on the difference between 'rock logic' and 'water logic'. Rock logic is the traditional approach, defining what is. Water logic looks at outcomes - not what something is, but what it leads to. The theory is actually more useful than the 'practical' technique of flowscapes, but don't be put off - it is quite readable theory, with some very real implications. Water Logic is hard to come by, but check the shop references for I am Right, You are Wrong, which covers much of the theoretical ground. Out of print in UK, but new and used available from Amazon Marketplace (under 'More Buying Choices') after clicking the shop button. For Water Logic: .New 20 June 98/Updated 11 February 2004

Tony & Barry Buzan

Use your Head.
The book that Tony Buzan wrote to accompany the BBC TV series of the same name. This book is getting quite old now but is still an essential read for anyone wanting to understand how to use their brain more effectively. Not as good on mind maps as The Mind Map Book, but covers considerably more ground. New 13 January 1999

Jonne Ceserani

Big Ideas.
This is a classic example of a book with lots of good ideas that struggle to escape through the author's style. Perhaps the most irritating feature is the way Mr Cesarani keeps using bold text to emphasize things, making it a little like trying to read a book on a roller coaster. It's also, dare I say it, rather dull, (sorry, I'll stop now) which is a shame because there's plenty of worthwhile content in Big Ideas. As you might expect from previous writing, Synectics plays quite a big part in the book, and there's a fair amount of information on the processes used by the successful US creativity franchise, but the big idea here is the distinction between 'human being' and 'human doing'. Apart from being an appalling pun, this picks up on the very real problem that most of us are so busy doing things that we don't find time to be. And arguably this is a very significant problem for creativity - because we need to take a step back from doing to being if we are going to be truly creative. This is a superb point, and though it's over-laboured and the introduction of NLP into the equation arguably muddies the water rather than making it clearer, you will certainly learn some things from this book if you can manage to wade through it.  New 7 May 2003

Chuck Frey

Power Tip and Strategies for Mind Mapping Software.
Interesting e-book giving assistance with applications, best use and context for mind mapping software. If you use mind maps and want to get into software, or want to broaden the use of your software product, well worth a look. New 21 September 2005

Jonne Ceserani & Peter Greatwood

Innovation and Creativity.
A guide to creativity based very much on the approach of the Synectics Corporation. It calls itself not-a-book (but it is really) in that it tries to give a different feel to reading. A good look at creativity from a different angle. New 13 January 1999

Clayton M. Christensen

The Innovator's Dilemma.
Modestly subtitled The revolutionary book that will change the way you do business, this is a very effective analysis of the realities of product innovation. Christensen has been pushing the idea of 'disruptive technologies' that overthrow the accepted order in a market for a long time. In itself it's not a hugely new idea, reminiscent of Kuhn's paradigm shifts on a small scale, but what he does here, very effectively, is to show how these disruptions tend to come from low cost entries from new players who don't follow the rules of 'the way it's done round here' - and how these new entries eventually shake the established high end dominators out of the tree. The lesson many large companies still fail to learn (as we stressed in DisOrganization) is the need to establish autonomous mini-companies that can be real new players if you aren't to be overtaken by outsiders (it's that or keep buying them in).  New 7 February 2003

Betty Edwards

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
This guide to why most of us can't draw, and the exploration of using right brain thinking to change the outcome is just as instructive for those trying to come up with creative ideas in other spheres. And you might be able to draw better after reading it too.

Drawing on the Artist Within.
In this sequel to Drawing on the Right Side, Edwards expands her ideas to take in practical creativity. Using the inspiration of drawing she provides simple mechanisms to generate new insights and come at a problem in a whole new way. Not so much thinking outside the box as drawing outside the box!

Penny Ferguson

Transform Your Life. 
A good entry in the elegant "52 brilliant ideas" series. Subtitled "one good idea can change your life", it is very much oriented to taking a different look at yourself and how you think and act to make the most of your personal resources.

There are 52 short chapters (handily one a week if your mind works well with that sort of structure). Apart from the main text there's a here's an idea for you box to try out straight away, try another idea that links to another of the sections, defining idea which is a relevant quote and how did it go, which gives guidance when it hasn't worked out properly for you. To be honest, the defining ideas weren't particularly inspiring, but that last section, how did it go, is a brilliant concept - not original, but (as I'm sure the authors will tell you) creativity isn't always about being original, and having a "how to fix it if it didn't work for you" bit is superb.  

Although this is a good book, it's a bit too marginal as far as creativity is concerned to make the main listing - however this doesn't make it any less a worthwhile read and useful aid to personal development. At the moment not available directly in the US, but it only costs a few dollars more to order it from Amazon.co.uk and have it shipped across.

James Higgins

101 Creative Problem Solving Techniques.
A pure toolbag, Higgins' book contains a barrage of techniques, some extremely useful, some less so. Excellent stimulation when your favourite techniques are flagging. A book to dip into, rather than read from cover to cover.

  Innovate or Evaporate: Test & Improve Your Organization's IQ: Its Innovation Quotient.
This book features questionnaires that allow firms to test their current levels of innovation in the areas of product, process, marketing and management. It includes lengthy and numerous descriptions of the 49 characteristics of innovative organizations. We are always a little wary of taking too quantitative an approach to creativity measurement (as opposed to measurement of benefits generated), but Higgins makes an interesting case. New 19 December 2002

 Roni Horowitz

ASIT Premiere.
This isn't really a book, though it is accompanied by an eBook, it's an online course in creativity and specifically the TRIZ-based ASIT methodology. Click on the More button for further details and a link to buy the course.

John Kao

Jamming.
Cruel reviewers have said that Kao's Jamming with its emphasis on the metaphor of business creativity as jazz, and the role of the leader as impresario is a triumph of style over substance - but this is unfair. Although it's not the most practical of books, there is a lot of good, thought-provoking material in there.

Arthur Koestler

The Act of Creation.
You might think from their writing that some of the more modern creativity gurus had invented the whole concept. Arthur Koester's book is not the world's lightest read, but it shows just how much those who followed owed to him.

Paul Plsek

Creativity, Innovation and Quality.
A good mix of creativity and quality, seen from the viewpoint of an active practitioner with a psychological approach. A good addition to the library. New 10 March 1999

Peter Russell

The Brain Book.
Not conventional creativity, but an exploration of the brain - how it works and how to make it work better, an essential precursor to creative thinking.  New 13 January 1999

Dennis Sherwood

Unlock Your Mind.
Subtitled a practical guide to deliberate and systematic innovation, Sherwood’s approach provides interesting and thought provoking interludes which add a touch spice to the easy flow of this book. Unlocking Your Mind is presented in 3 Parts, Patterns; touching on how our "learning" sets up regulated patterns which can confine our thinking to the accepted paradigms, and the consequent need for innovation to break out of the conventional thinking mode. Ideas covers the creative aspects of idea generation; the tools and process, and evaluation. The final part, Teamwork, has some wonderful insights but loses the plot through various sidetracks on management, structures, and knowledge.  New 11 February 1999

  Smart Things to Know about Innovation and Creativity.
Once you get past the series format, packed with ‘Smart things to say’, ‘Great answers to tough questions’, ‘Killer questions’. ‘Smart voices,’ and ‘Smart people to have on your side’ you find a good, across-the-board book. Sherwood distinguishes between the generation of ideas and the full creative process leading to implementation, emphasizing how both are needed to actually get things done. 'Smart Things' doesn't try to be a whole new solution, or to give an amazing new insight on creativity - instead (like Imagination Engineering) it's one of the few books around that gives the whole picture, on the need for creativity, the methods of idea generation and the mechanisms to see it through. A useful addition to any creativity shelf.  New 14 August 2001

David Straker

Problem Solving Through Post-It Notes.
"Post-It" notes are an ideal medium for identifying and manipulating chunks of information. They are particularly suited to group problem solving where both the information and the process need to be shared. David Straker's book will introduce you to refreshingly simple, practical, yet highly effective techniques. Note the UK version is significantly more expensive.

Robert J. Sternberg

  Handbook of Creativity.
According to the blurb: 'the goal of the Handbook of Creativity is to provide the most comprehensive, definitive, and authoritative single-volume review available in the field of creativity. To this end, the book contains 22 chapters covering a wide range of issues and topics in the field of creativity, all written by distinguished leaders in the field. The chapters have been written to be accessible to all educated readers with an interest in creative thinking.' There's a lot of good stuff in it, but it only makes it into the library rather than the core books because it's a typical academic job. It's piecemeal, written by a range of authors with no flow, and it's much too theoretical to be of any immediate practical value. However, and it's a big however, it's very useful background for the creativity practitioner. New 9 March 2002

J Terninko & A Zusman & B Zlotin

Systematic Innovation: An Introduction to Triz.
TRIZ is the Russian developed Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. It is aimed at the invention of new devices, but also offers ideas for more general invention and problem solving. The TRIZ methodology is astoundingly effective but, unfortunately, the text is Russian in origin and does not always work well in English. Systematic Innovation is a well structured and approachable introduction to the TRIZ methodology that really gives an insight into the possibilities of TRIZ - to see more on a more readable (but expensive) English text, try How to Invent (Almost) Anything.  New 13 January 1999

Arthur VanGundy

Structured Problem Solving.
Not a pure creativity book, and not a light read either, but the classic work on applying a structure to such a seemingly unstructured task is important reading for anyone involved in the business of solving problems (which has, of course, a huge overlap with creativity).

Problem solving is essential to the management role... in fact, if you think about, it if there's no problem solving, there's no point in having a manager - things should just run themselves. There are, of course, many other books on the subject, but this is the classic.