The ridiculous self-help craze

I am a frequent visitor to my local library. For those who still remember libraries, well-done. For those who think libraries are just collections of computer data, shame on you. Over the years I have a noticed a strange phenomenon at my local library however. Stuck in between the autobiography of John F Kennedy and that new Stephen King novel is something called Self-Help. An entire section of books designed to tell people what's wrong with them and how to fix it. They have books for poor people who want to be rich. They have books for fat people who want to skinny. They have books for lonely people who want to be loved. If you have a problem, odds are there is a book out there to solve it. After skimming through a few of these books I found myself equally fascinated and resentful. "One book professed that If your start thinking and acting like a rich man, you can be rich". I"m sorry to say the only thing this will help you achieve is debt and eventual bankruptcy. You can't live and act like the rich without the funds to back it up. There was a diet book that promised giving up carbs and adapting a diet of cheese and nuts will help you loose 50lbs in no time. What they fail to mention is the inconvenient side effect of high cholesterol and hypertension which leads to strokes and heart-attacks. But self-help books that really annoy me are the "How to achieve success" style books. The how to get a head in business books. Following these 12 steps....these 7 habits...these 9 rules...these 5 strategies spouted by that "yes-you-can" guy with the overly tan skin, overly bleached teeth and overly styled hair in the $1,000 Armani suit will make you a wealthy and better you! I get exhausted just thinking about it. These books about relationships with men, with food, with your boss. All these books are about different problems but their core message is the same: You are not good enough. I resent the underlying implication of these & motivational speakers, that there is something fundamentally wrong with the person I am now, that I have to change who I am and learn to work within my boundaries; as one book put it. I find it very hard to believe that this method works. You do not have to change who you are to be happy, but rather accept who you are to be happy. That is what these books should be focusing on. They should not be spouting the I'm-ok-you're-ok" philosophy but the "I'm-ok-so-deal-with-it" philosophy. If you like wearing purple eye shadow and listening to ABBA while vacuuming in high heels that's fine, that's who you are. I am not bashing these self-help books mind you. They can be quite helpful at times. They can help you see destructive behavior patterns you may not have noticed. Maybe you shouldn't have two ice cream cones for breakfast. And maybe you shouldn't post your boyfriends bail for a third time. However, these helpful tips can be found in any Cosmopolitan or Elle magazine for half the price of these self-help books. And they have perfume samples. In honor of the wonderful 180 page solution to your life, I have sought out the best Self-Help tittles for your reading pleasure. (These are real books, look them up on Amazon