During the earlier years of the who is the author of a course in miracles, Self Help Books fell into a niche category but later on they became more valued and popular generally. In the past 50 years or so, the most unread of Self Help Books has become culturally important, a fact which is now reluctantly admitted by the doomsayers! Some of the most hardened of critics would say that despite any disbelief in these books, we can’t dismiss them completely.
Electronic Books (eBooks)
With modern technology, the eBook has become probably one of the most popular methods of marketing and publishing books. Self publishing has never been easier. On the other hand, finding and buying a book has never been a difficult task. The eBook comes in different guises and is designed to be read in different ways. With the advent of the ‘Tablet’ and ‘Kindle’ as we all know them, locating and reading an eBook is now incredibly simple… and quite inexpensive too. Some other types of eBook are simply the subject wrapped up in a PDF file which can be simply read on a tablet or a laptop. eBooks, especially Self Help ones are available from so many different sources, it becomes quite a headache comparing and choosing. I have been operating a couple of Self Help eBook web sites over the years, which sell a wide range of inexpensive books and are obtained by a simple download after the purchase stage. I write some of them myself and others I have been recommended or researched.
I make eBooks available to my Customers to progress them with their learning. These books tend to withstand the test of time and have helped open up new ways of thinking, doing, working, loving etc. They are a valuable asset to ones’ virtual book shelves. Self-help books often concentrate on romance, for people who are experiencing problems with divorce, marriage breakdowns, girl & boyfriends, etc. However there are hundreds more out there, covering an enormous range of subjects. I even have some on Fly Fishing, Cat Care and would you believe it… Candle making!
But seriously… Self Help Books often publicise themselves as being able to fill the reader with self-awareness and performance, including contentment with life in general. They often say that they may be able to help you achieve this more quickly than with standard therapies. This is of course up to the reader to decide. If, when having read a Self Help Book, you feel that it has helped and given you a new target in life, increased your confidence, built a better relationship… or whatever you set out to achieve… then the book was worth every penny.
Despite the opinionated Doomsayers who have hardly anything good to say about Self Help Books, the self-help publishing industry is worth over £1 billion each year… regardless of this fact. Self-help books are also known as “self-improvement” books, a term that is the modern naming of the term ‘self-help’.
I for one am a great advocate of Self Help Books. I have quite a collection. I have read pretty much all of them and some of them several times over. They are full of yellow highlights and notes now, outlining thoughts which mean a lot to me. They have seen me through some upsetting times, giving me inspiration and have helped me meet challenges head on. They can help you get to grips with your most provoking of problems, help you improve your relationships, work on your problematic love life & business, keep you on track and fully focussed, motivate, challenge you to do better things, help you move out of comfort zones, instruct you how not to procrastinate, help you deal with stress, certain illnesses, teen angst, anger management, body language, confidence… and the list goes on.
Several of the books I have read over the years were written a very long time ago, ‘The Magic Of Thinking Big’, ‘Think & Grow Rich’ for instance. Lots of people, some highly successful people (even me) have stated that these two books alone have dramatically improved their life. There are of course many people who say that they would never need a Self Help Book and wouldn’t be seen near one. Some of these people could be absolutely right but I am willing to bet that even the most successful of us have, at some point or another, read at least one book.