The self-help genre: now more helpful than ever WELL-READ
Self-help books evolved in 2019: miracle cures are out and empathy is in, says aficionado Marianne Power
Iwas 24 when I read my first self-help book. I was drinking cheap white wine in a bar with my friend, complaining about my rubbish job, when she passed me her copy of Feel the Fear
and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers. I rolled my eyes at the title but took it to be polite.
That night I read 100 pages. I read the rest the following day. I quit my job and three weeks later I was doing work experience at a newspaper and my career in journalism started.
Since then, self-help books have been a constant on my bedside table. I even wrote my own book about what happened when I spent a year following the rules printed in different selfhelp works.
I was expecting a fair bit of sneering about my project but, surprisingly, I didn’t get it. It seems that we British are not as cynical about self-improvement as we used to be.
In fact, writers including Bryony Gordon, Russell Brand, Fearne Cotton, Ruby Wax and Matt Haig are topping the bestseller lists with their own humane and humorous versions of self-help. The genre has had a makeover; gone are the “get rich quick”, “be a brand new you” promises.
“Self-help is no longer about, ‘Do these three things and you’ll no longer be anxious,’” says Carole Tonkinson of Bluebird publishers.
“The old books say, ‘I used to have a problem, then I did this and I never worried about public speaking again.’ The new books feature people who are struggling and who share tips on how they manage.
“Yet they are not selling a cure. Their aim is to make people feel less alone, and also to contribute to a better world.”
What’s more, many of us are more open about our struggles these days, and so reading a self-help book is no longer embarrassing.
“It used to be associated with scenes in movies featuring sad women sobbing in the self-help aisle, looking at books with cheesy and depressing titles,” says Shahroo Izadi, a behavioural change specialist and author of The
Kindness Method and The Last Diet.
“Now it’s fine to say, ‘I’m trying to manage my stress,’ or ‘I’m trying to be better.’ Reading it doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you.”
But do they work? That’s the biggest question I get asked about my own experiment. Well, yes. And, no.
I started my project thinking I was broken and needed fixing. I thought that if I just tried hard enough, I could eradicate all my flaws and become a perfect person.
Spoiler alert: that didn’t happen. Not at all. No book is going to fix all your problems and perfection does not exist. And yet I learned so much, which is why I continue to read self-help books, for wisdom, encouragement and reassurance.
However, I no longer read the books that tell me the 20 things I need to do before breakfast to be a “success”. Instead, I read books that help me understand myself and the world a bit better.
In that vein, here are my favourite books of 2019 – and the ones to look out for next year.
I no longer read books that tell me 20 things I need to do before breakfast to be a ‘success’