We all want to be the best version of ourselves that we can be: happy, productive, motivated and living a life of meaning. But sometimes we find ourselves in need of guidance. There are many books that can help us in our quest to live as well as we can—as every bookshop's groaning shelves can attest. But which self help books are best?
We've asked dozens of experts to recommend the best books in their field. Some focus upon achievement, and the psychological factors that help us achieve: Angela Duckworth, the bestselling author of Grit, chose the best books on character development, while the renowned author of Mindset, Carol Dweck, chooses her best books on success. Michael Gervais, sports psychologist and coach to Olympians and CEOs alike, spoke to us about high performance psychology.
Others discuss overcoming periods of hardship in our life. For example, the podcaster and author Elizabeth Day chose the best books on coping with failure, while Sophie Ratcliffe selected five of the best books on grief and Robert Kelsey chose the best books on overcoming insecurities. Others spoke about strategies to help you get through periods of stress: Headspace founder Andy Puddicombe spoke about the books that inspired his life as a monk and meditation expert, while Tessa Watt recommends the best books on mindfulness.
One book, Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl is a book recommended time and time again amongst experts in this area. Frankl's account of his struggle to bring meaning to his life in a concentration camp in the Second World War is a deeply moving and inspiring book that offers all of us salutary lessons about the strength and value of having purpose in our lives.
Self help books are a great way to make big improvements in your life. It's never too late to change.
The best books on Being Average, recommended by Eleanor Ross
All of us are ultimately average, says author Eleanor Ross, and we should find that liberating rather than saddening. In this interview, she recommends five books across fiction and nonfiction that can help us understand and embrace our averageness.
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1
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
by Erving Goffman -
2
Popular: The Power of Likability in a Status-Obsessed World
by Mitch Prinstein -
3
Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away
by Annie Duke -
4
The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias
by Dolly Chugh -
5
The Odyssey
by Homer and translated by Emily Wilson
The best books on Making A Good Impression, recommended by Övül Sezer
The best books on Making A Good Impression, recommended by Övül Sezer
From the classroom to the boardroom, everybody tries (and sometimes fails) to be liked and admired by others. In this interview, Övül Sezer—Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations at Cornell University—recommends five books that can help you make a good impression on everybody, including yourself.
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1
Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment
by Cass Sunstein, Daniel Kahneman & Olivier Sibony -
2
But What If We're Wrong? Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past
by Chuck Klosterman -
3
The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
by Maria Konnikova -
4
Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank
by Weijian Shan -
5
Exhalation
by Ted Chiang
The best books on Making Good Decisions, recommended by Sebastian Park
The best books on Making Good Decisions, recommended by Sebastian Park
Good decision-making is a crucial skill not only in business but in life. In this interview, entrepreneur, investor and poker player Sebastian Park advises how to make good decisions in a world of uncertainty, how to evaluate past decisions for future improvement, and how fiction can help us reflect on the choices we make.
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Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want
by Ruha Benjamin -
2
Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole
by Susan Cain -
3
The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness
by Meghan O'Rourke -
4
Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else)
by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò -
5
Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living
by Dimitris Xygalatas
Five of the Best Self-Help Books of 2022, recommended by Avram Alpert
Five of the Best Self-Help Books of 2022, recommended by Avram Alpert
At the turn of the year, many of us take the opportunity to think about our lives—how they are going, and how we hope to live them in future. We asked Avram Alpert, author of The Good-Enough Life, to recommend five of the best self-help books of 2022 that might help our bids for self-improvement; his choices remind us that self-help is not only about life-hacks and diets, but about bringing the world more in line with our ideals.
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1
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
by Oliver Burkeman -
2
Make Your Art No Matter What: Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles
by Beth Pickens -
3
Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself
by Nedra Glover Tawwab -
4
The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self
by Martha Beck -
5
Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection
by Julia Cameron
The Best Self Help Books of 2021, recommended by Emma Gannon
The Best Self Help Books of 2021, recommended by Emma Gannon
Lockdowns have forced many of us to pause and consider the way we are living our lives, says the podcaster and bestselling author Emma Gannon. Here she highlights five of the best self help books published in 2021, with a special focus on creativity and setting better boundaries to safeguard our time and energy.
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1
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
by David Allen -
2
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
by Cal Newport -
3
The Tao of Time
by Diana Hunt & Pam Hait -
4
Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less
by Tiffany Dufu -
5
Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World
by Iddo Landau
The best books on Time Management, recommended by Oliver Burkeman
The best books on Time Management, recommended by Oliver Burkeman
Feeling stressed and overwhelmed? You are not alone. Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks, selects some of the best books on time management—including two classic how-to guides, plus several texts focused on helping you decide how you really want to spend your finite time on this planet.
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1
Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway
by Susan Jeffers -
2
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
by Dale Carnegie -
3
Helping Your Child with Fears and Worries
by Cathy Creswell & Lucy Willetts -
4
Mindfulness For Health: A Practical Guide To Relieving Pain, Reducing Stress And Restoring Wellbeing
by Danny Penman & Vidyamala Burch -
5
Jog On: How Running Saved My Life
by Bella Mackie
The best books on Anxiety, recommended by Lucy Foulkes
The best books on Anxiety, recommended by Lucy Foulkes
Feeling anxiety is a natural part of being a human being, but for some people it can cause terrible mental and physical anguish and prevents them from leading happy and fulfilling lives. Lucy Foulkes, a psychologist at University College London, talks us through books that can help with anxiety.
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1
The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder
by Richard Rohr -
2
Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times: Powerful Tools to Cultivate Calm, Clarity, and Courage
by Philip Goldberg -
3
How to Be a Failure and Still Live Well: A Philosophy
by Beverley Clack -
4
The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century
by Adam Davidson -
5
The New Corner Office: How the Most Successful People Work From Home
The Best Self Help Books of 2020, recommended by Oliver Burkeman
The Best Self Help Books of 2020, recommended by Oliver Burkeman
We asked Oliver Burkeman, the Guardian writer and author of The Antidote, to select the best self help books published in 2020. His recommended titles include spiritual guidance for the age of doomscrolling, a philosophy of failure, and practical advice for those working from home for the first time.
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1
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
by Daniel J Levitin -
2
BrainChains: Your Thinking Brain Explained in Simple Terms
by Theo Compernolle -
3
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
by Atul Gawande -
4
The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
by Kevin Kelly -
5
The Antidote
by Oliver Burkeman
The best books on Productivity, recommended by David Allen
The best books on Productivity, recommended by David Allen
If you feel like you lose whole days to procrastination or indecision—or simply have too much to do!—you probably want advice on how improve your productivity. We spoke to David Allen, creator of the perennial bestseller Getting Things Done, about the best books on the subject: why we waste time, and what we can change to be more productive.
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1
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
by Shunryu Suzuki -
2
The Life of Milarepa
Translated by Lobsang P Lhalungpa -
3
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism
by Chogyam Trungpa -
4
The Bodhicaryāvatāra
by Śāntideva -
5
One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryōkan
by Ryōkan
Meditation Books, recommended by Andy Puddicombe
Meditation Books, recommended by Andy Puddicombe
Two decades ago Andy Puddicombe was ordained as a Buddhist monk. Now back in lay life, he tries to teach the benefits of meditation to the rest of us—most notably through the Headspace app, but also by writing books. Here he chooses some of the books that inspired him, from Japanese poetry to Tibetan philosophy. Not all are meditation books but they are his “old favorites.”