Our feng shui book piles with author Dani Kreeft
I’m currently reading a memoir about nomadic living and decided to ask the author to create a feng shui book pile with me.
I recently took a feng shui workshop led by
and fell in love with the concept of feng shui book piles. The concept is simple —you put together a few books to attract more success, love, wisdom, or sleep based on your personal feng shui directions. The books are energetically meant to inspire and support you, whether you read them or not.As I was putting together my “success” books, I was inspired to invite the author of the book I’m currently reading, Dani Kreeft, to create a feng shui book pile with me. I was so excited when she said yes to the interview and feng shui exercise!
Note: If you’re interested in creating your own feng shui book pile, grab your compass (download the app) and look up your kua number with your birthdate. If you’re nonbinary, experiment with both yin and yang options.
Without further ado, check out our conversation and examples from our feng shui book piles:
Who is the Dani Kreeft?! And the books we’ve loved
Dani: I’m a writer and storyteller looking for the most honest way to say the things we most need to hear. That’s exercised itself out of my body in all kinds of ways — as the founder of a greeting card company that sold 50,000 cards in 100+ stores worldwide, as an advertising copywriter repping beer, bread, mattress, weed and underwear brands, as a ghostwriter penning memoirs alongside websites, poetry and scripts for HGTV stars, motorcycle clubs and movement gurus. And lately, as the newly published author of my own nomadic memoir, Waves Come in Sets: On Life, Travel and the People We Meet In Between.
Amy: What’s your human design? Profile, authority, energy type? (For those who are not familiar, this is like your rising, sun, and moon signs in astrology!)
Dani: I’m a 2/4 splenic manifestor.
Amy: That makes so much sense to me! I met you through mutual friends and fell in love with your writing. Years later, you suddenly shared that you published a book! You make it seem so easy! Were you a big reader growing up? What books do you like to read?
Dani: Books and reading have been big players in my life, but not in the “I’m a voracious reader” sense. I wasn’t the kid with her nose in a book and glasses permanently transfixed, and I’m still that way now. I probably only rip through about six books a year - not a lot - and I used to put a ton of pressure on myself to read more because writers have to be readers, right? Not necessarily. I enjoy a good read and a good story, but I’m much more creatively satiated by experiences. I’ve ripped through nearly 30 countries from Mozambique to Spain, India to Indo, Panama to Italy, and it’s because I’m hungry to throw myself into the world and bring treasures and peculiarities and characters back to sit on my mantle. I don’t have a deep propensity for other worlds — whether fiction or non-fiction — to feel inspired, to escape or to pass the time. If you do catch me reading, find me in the memoir genre through and through. Anthony Kiedis, Rich Roll, Paul Rosolie, Priscilla Presley, Mary Karr, Maya Angelou, Bono, Donald Miller, Matthew McConaughey, James Baldwin, Glennon Doyle, my list goes on and on.
Amy: I was that kid with my nose in a book. You could easily find me at the library after school and on weekends, reading (and rereading) Garfield comics, teen fantasy books, novels by the Brontë sisters, and Egyptology textbooks. After college, I only read self-help books and have had trouble finishing books in my 30s. I’m intrigued by the adult romance genre currently dominating book sales. So, speaking of inspiration, creativity, and love, which feng shui theme did you want to focus on? Your Kua number is 8:
Dani: I’m going with northeast (Fu Wei) for stability because I feel like that influences the strength and health of all the other directions — success, well-being, relationships, love, etc. But since I'm nomadic, I only have four books with me. Can we still do this with just those?
Amy: Of course! You can use one book or ten. Place your books in the northeast direction of your office or bedroom. Since your northeast is your Fu Wei, it’ll energetically help with stability as well as activating more wisdom and personal growth. Try experimenting with the different directions in the future!
The 4 books Dani brought from Canada to LA:
Stay True by Hua Hsu
I spotted this one at Shelf Life Books in Calgary almost two years ago, and was intrigued, but not invested until I was in charge of picking my LA book club’s read. I put this in the polls and it won, so the time was right! It’s a phenomenal memoir pulling you into the bonds of friendship woven together by forgettable details in the precious days of youth. So well written.
Things I Don’t Want to Know by Deborah Levy
Our mutual friend, Amanda Chase, put me onto this one! Drawn in by its cobalt blue cover and great title, it was little more than an invitation and aesthetic thumbs up that made me buy it. I’m only halfway through, but loving the simplicity and depth of her tales. It’s one of three in a series, and I’m eager to plow through the other two this summer.
The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware
After promising myself not to buy any more books at thrift shops, I allowed myself one shelf to look at and this was smack in the middle of the pile right next to “Men are like waffles, women are like spaghetti.” I was just about to start hosting a 6-month group gathering called The Last Summer - an homage to the power of intention and the recognition that you don’t have endless summers ahead of you - and this book couldn’t have felt more serendipitous to spot. I’m gleaning so much from its wisdom.
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
It wasn’t so much the subject matter, but the royalty of the author that made me pull it open — that and my friend, Amanda Norgaard, gifted it to me before she left from Costa Rica. It’s such an honour to be on the receiving end of a book traveling through hands so intentionally. I don’t need to add to the cultural acknowledgement of Didion’s brilliant mind, but I gasp and re-read and weep. Didion is just jaw-dropping.
The book Amy is currently reading:
During my honeymoon in Hawaii, I started reading Dani’s memoir, Waves Come in Sets. As a former digital nomad during the pandemic, I found myself laughing and crying over her familiar tales. Her stories hit close to home (Dani writes quite a lot about Los Angeles, my hometown). She is also a Gemini and I am obsessed with how she interacts with the world. It’s hypnotizing.
After my feng shui class, I asked my husband to help me move my desk to face southwest to call in more success (don’t forget to look up your directions with your birthdate). I grabbed books about marketing, human design, astrology, sociology, and neurodiversity. All my special interests. My feng shui “success” book pile that inspired this substack post:
Thanks for reading!
Share your feng shui book pile with us! If you’re interested in learning more about feng shui, I took Elizabeth Armistead’s workshop at Anima Mundi in Venice. I love how
shares both feng shui and pagan practices in her classes. I’m still going through all the material weeks later.Interested in writing your own book? Dani just launched a course on writing a book! You can also follow Dani’s Substack or IG for more creative inspiration and nomadic adventures.