What do you think?
Rate this book
Floating Mountains: The Art of Imagining the Impossible
Not yet published
Expected 8 Sep 26Disney Legend and Imagineer Joe Rohde unlocks the secrets of creativity in this powerful exploration of imagination, innovation, and life lessons for turning vision into reality.
In this inspiring narrative, Imagineer, explorer, and Disney Legend Joe Rohde offers a master class in creativity on a world-spanning journey to discover the origins of personal creativity, the power and potential of enterprising groups, and the remarkable parallels between collaboration and exploring the real world.
With lessons drawn from his celebrated career and life experiences—leading projects such as Disney’s Animal Kingdom, ventures into space tourism, field expeditions to far-flung corners of the world, managing design teams, and working with corporate executives—Rohde dives deep into the nature, nurture, and practice of collaboration. He explains how to keep ideas to true to their origins while allowing for improvisation and accident to enhance, not derail, creative endeavors.
These are stories of inspiration and invention, challenge and transgression, success and failure, laced with humor, contemplation, poignancy, and even life-threatening danger. Whether your interest in creativity is personal, professional, or you just want to peek behind the curtain of a renowned creative mind, Rohde’s lessons provide a guide for connecting your creative pursuits with others and the larger world.
In this inspiring narrative, Imagineer, explorer, and Disney Legend Joe Rohde offers a master class in creativity on a world-spanning journey to discover the origins of personal creativity, the power and potential of enterprising groups, and the remarkable parallels between collaboration and exploring the real world.
With lessons drawn from his celebrated career and life experiences—leading projects such as Disney’s Animal Kingdom, ventures into space tourism, field expeditions to far-flung corners of the world, managing design teams, and working with corporate executives—Rohde dives deep into the nature, nurture, and practice of collaboration. He explains how to keep ideas to true to their origins while allowing for improvisation and accident to enhance, not derail, creative endeavors.
These are stories of inspiration and invention, challenge and transgression, success and failure, laced with humor, contemplation, poignancy, and even life-threatening danger. Whether your interest in creativity is personal, professional, or you just want to peek behind the curtain of a renowned creative mind, Rohde’s lessons provide a guide for connecting your creative pursuits with others and the larger world.
- GenresNonfictionArchitecture
352 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication September 8, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Read
August 11, 2026Joe Rohde's Floating Mountains: The Art of Imagining the Impossible is an inspiring exploration of creativity, imagination, collaboration, and the difficult but rewarding process of transforming extraordinary ideas into reality. Drawing from a remarkable career as an Imagineer, explorer, designer, and creative leader, Rohde offers readers an unusually intimate look at what it means to pursue ambitious ideas while remaining open to discovery, experimentation, and change.
One of the book's greatest strengths is its understanding that creativity is not simply the ability to generate interesting ideas. Rohde demonstrates that meaningful creative work requires curiosity, discipline, collaboration, resilience, and the willingness to allow unexpected discoveries to influence the original vision. His experiences reveal how an idea can remain faithful to its essential character while evolving through experimentation and interaction with the people and environments surrounding it.
The stories drawn from Rohde's career are particularly compelling. His work on Disney's Animal Kingdom, along with his experiences leading design teams, working with executives, traveling on field expeditions, and exploring unfamiliar environments, provides a fascinating collection of real world examples of creativity under demanding circumstances. Rather than presenting innovation as a simple formula, he shows the uncertainty, disagreement, accidents, failures, and breakthroughs that are often part of creating something genuinely new.
The book's emphasis on collaboration is equally valuable. Rohde makes a persuasive case that exceptional creative work rarely emerges from an isolated individual. Great ideas become more powerful when different perspectives, skills, disciplines, and experiences interact. This makes the book particularly relevant not only to artists and designers but also to entrepreneurs, executives, creative directors, innovators, educators, and anyone responsible for helping teams produce original work.
Another appealing quality is the breadth of Rohde's perspective. His experiences connect creativity with exploration, architecture, storytelling, organizational leadership, and the natural world. These connections encourage readers to think about imagination beyond conventional creative industries and consider how the same principles can influence business, technology, education, leadership, and everyday problem solving.
Ultimately, Floating Mountains is more than a memoir of an extraordinary creative career. It is an invitation to rethink what creativity looks like when imagination meets execution. Rohde's stories of ambition, failure, discovery, collaboration, and persistence make the book both entertaining and practically valuable.
For readers interested in creativity, innovation, design, architecture, leadership, Disney history, entrepreneurship, and the psychology of imagination, Floating Mountains offers a rare opportunity to learn from someone who spent decades turning seemingly impossible ideas into tangible experiences. Its central message is both ambitious and encouraging: the impossible becomes possible when we are willing to imagine beyond the obvious and then build together toward what we cannot yet see.
One of the book's greatest strengths is its understanding that creativity is not simply the ability to generate interesting ideas. Rohde demonstrates that meaningful creative work requires curiosity, discipline, collaboration, resilience, and the willingness to allow unexpected discoveries to influence the original vision. His experiences reveal how an idea can remain faithful to its essential character while evolving through experimentation and interaction with the people and environments surrounding it.
The stories drawn from Rohde's career are particularly compelling. His work on Disney's Animal Kingdom, along with his experiences leading design teams, working with executives, traveling on field expeditions, and exploring unfamiliar environments, provides a fascinating collection of real world examples of creativity under demanding circumstances. Rather than presenting innovation as a simple formula, he shows the uncertainty, disagreement, accidents, failures, and breakthroughs that are often part of creating something genuinely new.
The book's emphasis on collaboration is equally valuable. Rohde makes a persuasive case that exceptional creative work rarely emerges from an isolated individual. Great ideas become more powerful when different perspectives, skills, disciplines, and experiences interact. This makes the book particularly relevant not only to artists and designers but also to entrepreneurs, executives, creative directors, innovators, educators, and anyone responsible for helping teams produce original work.
Another appealing quality is the breadth of Rohde's perspective. His experiences connect creativity with exploration, architecture, storytelling, organizational leadership, and the natural world. These connections encourage readers to think about imagination beyond conventional creative industries and consider how the same principles can influence business, technology, education, leadership, and everyday problem solving.
Ultimately, Floating Mountains is more than a memoir of an extraordinary creative career. It is an invitation to rethink what creativity looks like when imagination meets execution. Rohde's stories of ambition, failure, discovery, collaboration, and persistence make the book both entertaining and practically valuable.
For readers interested in creativity, innovation, design, architecture, leadership, Disney history, entrepreneurship, and the psychology of imagination, Floating Mountains offers a rare opportunity to learn from someone who spent decades turning seemingly impossible ideas into tangible experiences. Its central message is both ambitious and encouraging: the impossible becomes possible when we are willing to imagine beyond the obvious and then build together toward what we cannot yet see.
August 8, 2026
Joe Rohde’s Floating Mountains is part memoir, part instructional, and filled with charm and heart.
The Imagineer’s story begins with a slightly bohemian childhood in Hawaii and charts his remarkable successes at Disney and his many excursions to exotic locales around the world. Learning about Rohde’s formative years provides greater insight into the methodology he brings to his creative work. He is a firm believer in creative collaboration and adaptability when it comes to solving creative challenges.
Rohde stresses that one of the most important parts of any creative challenge is determining the work’s thematic identity. If you understand what a thing is supposed to be, it becomes much easier to make it that way. Once that essential identity is clear, the creative decisions that follow become less arbitrary and more purposeful.
Three ideas lingered with me after finishing Floating Mountains: the power of dreams, the power of teams, and the conviction that the creative act itself—the challenge , the conception, the collaboration—is every bit as important as the finished result.
The Imagineer’s story begins with a slightly bohemian childhood in Hawaii and charts his remarkable successes at Disney and his many excursions to exotic locales around the world. Learning about Rohde’s formative years provides greater insight into the methodology he brings to his creative work. He is a firm believer in creative collaboration and adaptability when it comes to solving creative challenges.
Rohde stresses that one of the most important parts of any creative challenge is determining the work’s thematic identity. If you understand what a thing is supposed to be, it becomes much easier to make it that way. Once that essential identity is clear, the creative decisions that follow become less arbitrary and more purposeful.
Three ideas lingered with me after finishing Floating Mountains: the power of dreams, the power of teams, and the conviction that the creative act itself—the challenge , the conception, the collaboration—is every bit as important as the finished result.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Joe Rohde has to be one of the most interesting people on the planet, at least within my personal weird intersection of interests.
This is an inspiring book, it makes me want to be more creative and think about problems in different ways. I especially appreciate Rohde's broad definition of themed design as a practice, explored in a way that makes it feel applicable to almost any kind of work.
While I don't think he ever uses these words, a surprising amount of this book is actually about project management and, if you squint a little bit, my own personal biases show me very good takes on UX design practices.
Mostly, Floating Mountains makes me wish I could immediately get to Animal Kingdom and Aulani.
This is an inspiring book, it makes me want to be more creative and think about problems in different ways. I especially appreciate Rohde's broad definition of themed design as a practice, explored in a way that makes it feel applicable to almost any kind of work.
While I don't think he ever uses these words, a surprising amount of this book is actually about project management and, if you squint a little bit, my own personal biases show me very good takes on UX design practices.
Mostly, Floating Mountains makes me wish I could immediately get to Animal Kingdom and Aulani.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I loved this book about creativity by Joe Rohde, the Disney Imagineer behind the Animal Kingdom theme park. He talks frankly about what does, and doesn’t work, within a creative team and his stories about traveling the world and bringing cultures to life within immersive storytelling was really compelling! A must-read for any Disney parks fan, and anyone who works on creative projects. He embodies what I love about the Parks, reminding us that they are truly works of art.
Want to Read
February 26, 2026We met Joe Rohde in Animal Kingdom when we were on vacation last year, and he was so nice. His son even took our picture with him. Excited to be the first Goodreads review for this book pre-release and even more excited to read the book!
Want to Read
June 17, 2026Won and received a copy through a Goodreads Giveaway.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews