Recommend Good Self-Help Books

[Toad]

Go ahead. Recommend some to me. I want to start reading some again but I have no idea where to start.

 

[Cogwulf]

My personal opinion is that all self-help books are bullshit

At worst they're a bunch of meaningless words
At best they're just a collection of common sense put into words that make it sound new and original

 

[Toad]

I think they are fun to read. Even though they may only give "common sense" wrapped up in fancy words lol. Sometimes we forget common sense. Sometimes we just need to be steered in the right direction because we lose focus of the bigger picture.

I've found Zen books to be quite helpful. I don't practice meditation anymore, but those books showed me to look at the bigger picture and control my thoughts.

 

[Ashenstar]

The Bible


*starts laughing maniacally*

I have yet to find a self help book that helped.

 

[Toad]

The Bible is actually a pretty good self help book. Particularly the book of Proverbs.

 

[Ashenstar]

*is very serious now*

Interestingly enough, the Bible is a great self help book. The ability of a book to help someone largely depends on the person who is reading it quite honestly.

Lemme see. My bubble-headed ESFJ mom loves "You can Heal Your Life" and "Feelings Buried Alive Never Die"
She is really into the whole physical-emotion connection and believes that every physical problem is caused by an emotion and those book are designed to help people heal themselves and whatnot.

 

[Toad]

lol my mom's an ESFJ too. She's really into this whole "religion/jesus healed my life" crap. Goes to church everday...

 

[Ashenstar]

lol my mom's an ESFJ too. She's really into this whole "religion/jesus healed my life" crap. Goes to church everday...

Oh dear. yes. my momma's a Jehovah's Wittness. Very zealous. Reminds me at least once a week how Armageddon is comming soon and I'm going to die.
The other day I was talking about some long term goals, in about 10-20 years and she said "Well by then the new system will be here and it won't matter anymore." she then walked away so I couldn't retort.

So original topic. Are you interested in any certain subject of self help? There are books on EVERYTHING.

 

[Toad]

Mainly happiness? I don't know. Anything that would be interesting to an INTP. Money and success I can really care less about...

 

[transformers]

My personal opinion is that all self-help books are bullshit

At worst they're a bunch of meaningless words
At best they're just a collection of common sense put into words that make it sound new and original

Some people would say the same about personality theories

Self help books can give you a new perspective on an old problem, and to that extent they may be useful. But I think if you're expecting them to revolutionize your life, you're going to end up disappointed.

"Constructive Living" is a book I read a long time ago that was semi-interesting. It basically encourages you to live a more productive, organized life by paying less attention to your emotions.

 

[Toad]

Paying less attention to your emotions seems like a negative thing. I think I've neglected my emotional needs far enough.

 

[echoplex]

The other day I was talking about some long term goals, in about 10-20 years and she said "Well by then the new system will be here and it won't matter anymore."

Oh my. That's one of those statements that has so much wrong with it you don't even know where to start. You just end up speechless. I'd say I know people like that, but frankly, none of them say things that silly.

I mean, really? system? and you know when? uhh, how, uhh, can...you. *brain explodes*

It must be fun talking to her though.

 

[Belph]

Self-help books? I think i have some of those but never really read anything unknown to me before, so not helping that much.

Even though they may only give "common sense" wrapped up in fancy words lol. Sometimes we forget common sense.

Yes. First time I was expecting some big truth, the secret to life. Or something. But i guess the answer must me much simpler than i thought. But procrastination is a bitch. And mostly after many years I kinda gave up and let it take over. It's a bad thing out of what i heard.

 

[Toad]

Things like having a goal, keeping busy, eating healthy, and exercise are simple ways to stay happy. But those "simple things" are actually quite hard to do.

 

[Belph]

I'm wandering why does it come so naturally to others, these simple things, staying happy. Maybe because I'm wandering too much. Putting too much thought into it? Now I need a book to teach me to stop thinking. Oh i do have one. But losing the one thing that I've been enjoying since childhood, would that really make me happy? Is anyone happy? What is happiness more precisely? Why do some humans seem to be doomed with eternal misery?
I've read books that stumbled upon this but i never really managed to get what i was expecting out of it. Happiness is simple but not easy to get.
If you're not especially 'happy' but let's say more something like the excitement of a new concept, understanding, learning. They all give me a certain feeling, but is that happiness?
Argh.

 

[Toad]

Now I need a book to teach me to stop thinking.

Again, the Bible...lol

 

[Beat Mango]

"Everyday Zen" is brilliant if you like Zen, I forget the author. I consider self-help, for me, to be a weak level of therapy. The blogger Steve Pavlina is quite good, www.stevepavlina.com, one of the better ones, but I still find him annoying at times. I used to be really into Wayne Dyer.

These days though the best self-help books are ones like these:

Schopenhauer, "Essays and Aphorisms"
Epictetus, "Moral Discourses"
Anything by Nietzsche or Jung.

 

[Ashenstar]

Oh. I highly recommend Steve Pavlina as well! I discovered him through Gala who has a blog just full of sparkly happy lovey sparkly sparkly goodness!

 

[Toad]

Cool, Steve Pavlina here I come! Thanks guys.

 

[Da Blob]

Might I suggest Current Psychotherapies by Corsini and Wedding? It is an introductory text, that is fairly easy to read. It presents a summary of the history and outlines of the most popular methods of mental therapies.
It is really just a survey of the spectrum of different methods, one can find a few of interest and then find some more detailed literature on the methods of interest. In the final analysis, all psychotherapists can do is assist clients in their own therapeutic changes of behavior...

 

[Ghost1986]

Go ahead. Recommend some to me. I want to start reading some again but I have no idea where to start.

might i suggest "the better points of shooting your self in the head" by J R deadguy.

ok i at one point had many books. some were rear and some were occult/metaphysical/medicine.

here are the ones that made an impact. by impact i mean i remember them.


how i found freedom in an unfree world. this book is out of print and thus your copy will be used.

how to win friends and influence. this is considered the original self help book and i fount t quite interesting.

the power of posative thinking.

energy medicine i like it.

that's all i remember right now and iam not driving 2 hours to look at my little library. sorry.

 

[Madoness]

Self help books are BS, go act as anybody does, you're doing it wrong, here are my suggestions you need to follow point by point to be as everyone is. No, I don't want to be as everyone is, I would want to find my own path but not to follow anothers.

 

[Beat Mango]

Here's the main, and really, only problem I have with self help teachers: they contradict each other. Eg, the two guys I mentioned as being two of my favourites, Wayne Dyer and Steve Pavlina, have very different views on goal-setting:

Steve Pavlina: goal-setting is crucial, it's a must-do if you want to achieve.

Wayne Dyer: "I've never set goals". Pretty much all about spontaneity.

 

[Decaf]

Self-Help books are by their nature vague. The most successful ones are the ones that can be applied to the broadest set of problems, which in turn makes them the most useless at addressing anything specific.

The goal is to turn off your Ne for a moment and listen to your Si. Figure out what the problem is before you start coming up with solutions. The book you're looking for might not even be in the self-help section. If you're just interested in reading interesting things, I would suggest the trade-skills section.

That being said, there are a few books that I've found to be useful, so I'll go ahead and post 'em.


Too Nice for Your Own Good
http://www.amazon.com/Too-Nice-Your...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257195314&sr=1-1

Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar
http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Bucca...=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257195381&sr=1-3

Leadership Blind Spots
http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Bl...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257195276&sr=1-1

 

[Polaris]

This is not a self-help book, but a thread about the movie "Into the wild", made me think about the original book by John Krakauer. It is worth a read if you are searching. And young. And a little lost.

 

[nickgray]

Friedrich Nietzsche - Human, All Too Human.
Alexander Blok - Poems (especially the 'Dances of Death' cycle)
Richard Feynman - Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

the usual self-help books are, obviously, complete bullshit

 

[Anthile]

Friedrich Nietzsche - Human, All Too Human.

Certainly, I wonder if that book ever helped anyone.

"I improved my life through Nietzsche™ - and YOU can do that too. Simply call 0800-ÜBERMENSCH."

 

[Vrecknidj]

Mother Nature, by Sarah Hrdy (last name is spelled correctly).

It's not a self-help book. But, if you understand it, it will help you understand yourself.

Dave