What I'm reading...

I am a self-help book fanatic. I read self-help books like others read best sellers. I'm not sure they've done all that much good (!) but hey... I'm open to new ideas. Before I talk about the newest self-help book I've read, I do want to mention a book called HAPPINESS by Will Ferguson. It's fiction - wonderful fiction! - about what would happen if self-help books actually worked (the end of civilization as we know it!). Truly a great read with a few belly laughs and a lot to think about. But I digress... I just finished Beth Lisick's HELPING ME HELP MYSELF. It's self-help that reads like fiction. Beth and husband are reasonably successful in their own careers, but careening down a path of chaos and financial ruin. Not normally a self-help book reader, Beth decides to devote one year of her life to improve all aspects of her life, and chooses ten of the most widely known self-help authors and speakers, and pay attention to what they have to say. She reads the books, attends seminars, talks to the authors themselves. If you're a self-help book junkie like I am, you'll know every author she mentions and will have probably read their bestsellers. If you're a self-help skeptic like I am, you may know the ending before you get to it. Beth writes of the basic theories of each author in a funny "Cliff Notes" style. Whether or not you improve your life by reading this book is almost unimportant. What's important is that it's just a plain good read with lots of laughs and no deep introspective thinking required.