This is the best book I’ve ever read in my life. This was published in 1937 and I’ve yet to find any book written since then that is more profound and insightful than this one. It explains primarily how to use one’s mind to acquire and achieve important goals in life. Some of the most prominent subjects are thought habits, visualization, the subconscious mind, aiming high in life, persistence, universal laws, and definiteness of purpose.
2. The 48 Laws of Power – Robert Greene
Explains in a very bold and amoral way, how people throughout history have used insinuation and deception to gain power and control. When it comes to human nature and what some people are capable of, this was a real eye-opener. There’s no way that I would ever follow half of the advice in this book, but I think it’s useful to know the motivations and tactics used by politicians and some of the more power-hungry people that I have to come across. Some of the most useful topics are reputation, indirect communication, persuasion, and building “alliances.”
I’m very cynical of self-help books. But so far the one I’ve been the least cynical about (because I want it to work) is Alan Carr’s How to Control Alcohol. It is a deliberately mis-leading title because it’s not about controling alcohol, it’s about quitting.
I also got a lot out of:
“Magic of Thinking Big”
“Unstoppable”
“Thou Shall Prosper”
“Your Money or Your Life”
I think I’ve read over 100 self-help books. Most of them say the same things with different metaphors. Nevertheless, I think reinforcement of the concepts as told by different authors has value in and of itself.
There was a book called “Stop Running Scared.” If you suffer from any sort of anixety problem I can’t recommend it enough.
Another good book is called “The Ostrich Syndrome.” It’s about how people instead of coping with things, simply bury their heads in the sand. I didn’t realize there was so much I couldn’t do. Like go into a store and ask for change without buying something.
Feeling Good - The New Mood Therapy and the Feeling Good Handbook by David Burns are changing my life as I’m learning to apply the “cognitive” techniques.
It wasn’t a quick fix or a miracle or anything, just a well written book that looks at depression in a way that makes sense to me, which is the important thing. I can’t recommend it highly enough - it just makes sense and looks at depression and anger in such a logical and rational way. Every other self-help depression book really pissed me off. They all seemed to be religious, or new-agey, or suggest you tell your reflection how wonderful you are and how you love yourself. Stuff that just didn’t help me at all. But this one is different and it’s wonderful, in my opinion.
I second the reccomendation for this book, and include the behavioral activation workbook Overcoming Depression One Step at a Time. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is wonderful for both depression and anxiety because it treats the immediate problems, directs its forcus on everything interering with your ability live life right now. It seeks to bring out the scentist in all of us. I also reccomend Albert Ellis’ masterwork The New Guide to Rational Living. Ellis is considered one of the fathers of cognitive therapy, and he lays it all out very simply in his book.
I have the second of the books you mention. Though I’ve not got very far into it. I had more pressing needs so I’d been reading Alan Carr’s Easyway to control Alcohol
I don’t have a depression problem as such (I’m far more stable and happy than I was a few years ago) but I did have an alcohol problem which I needed to deal with.
I’m not sure when I’ll get around to reading the FGH because I have piles of half-read books scattered in arms reach around my bed. Most of them fiction.
edit: Another pressing need I have right now and since I quit drinking is boredom at work. To solve that I need somethign meaningful to do when I’m not actually working (when there’s no work to do). By meaningful I mean something that I will find rewarding and will actually want to do. As opposed to slowly decaying an an office chair.
The Wealthy Barber, David Chilton
Your Money or Your Life, Vicki Robin, Joe Dominguez, Monique Tilford
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey
I’ll third this and add Intimate Connections by the same author. It explains beautifully how the way we think can trip us up and how to avoid it. I only wish I’d read this book in high school.
On edit: The Lost Art Of Listening goes into the less intuitive aspects of really hearing what the other person is saying. A lot of what we think we know about listening to the other person is wrong, and over the past few years, I have had a few opportunities to thank myself for reading this book.
Walker Percy’s LOST IN THE COSMOS: The Last Self-Help Book
Of course.
Actually, I’ve found a couple of Dale Carnegie books helpful, as well as Robert Schuller’s SELF-ESTEEN: The New Reformation, and a couple of Nathaniel Branden’s 1980s-era books.
Also good: " Games people play"by Eric Berne. In this short pocket book, Berne does a really good job of popularizing the Freudian concepts of Id, Ich and Uber-ich, that describe both functiona and dysfunctional social interactions.
I’ve read the book twenty years ago, and I still look at myself and friends through these mild and understanding glasses. Besides, it’s one of the funniest self-help books ever, precisely because it hits the nail on the head so often. Berne gives descriptions and anti-scripts to such games and pastimes as: “Ain’t it Awful” “If it weren’t For You” “Why Don’t You-Yes But” “See What You Made Me Do” " Now I’ve Got You, You Son Of A Bitch", “Look Ma No Hands” “Rapo” and “Wooden Leg”, among many others.