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first published in great britain and usa by nicholas brealey publishing in 2003 35 spafield street clerkenwell london ec1r 4qb uk tel +44 020 7239 0360 fax +44 020 7239 0370 http www.nbrealey-books.com © tom butler-bowdon 2003 the right of tom butler-bowdon to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the copyright designs and patents act 1988 isbn 1-85788-323-3 british library cataloguing in publication data a catalogue record for this book is available from the british library library of congress cataloging-in-publication data butler-bowdon tom 1967 50 self-help classics 50 inspirational books to transform your life tom butler-bowdon p cm includes bibliographical references and index isbn 1-85788-323-3 1 self-help techniques bibliography 2 life skills bibliography i title fifty self-help classics ii title z7204.s44 b88 2003 [bf632 253.5 3 de21 2002040774 all rights reserved no part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording and/or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publishers this book may not be lent resold hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form binding or cover other than that in which it is published without the prior consent of the publishers printed in finland by ws bookwell po box 700 yarmouth maine 04096 usa tel 888 brealey fax 207 846 5181[close]
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50 self-help classics 50 inspirational books to transform your life from timeless sages to contemporary gurus tom butler-bowdon nicholasbrealeyplublishingondon ya rmouth maine[close]
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richard koch ellen j langer william bridges alain de botton henry david thoreau wayne dyer pierre teilhard de chardin steve andreas charles faulkner marcus aurelius lao tzu the dalai lama howard c cutler mihaly csikszentmihalyi maxwell maltz thomas moore carol s pearson anthony robbins martha beck paulo coelho norman vincent peale the dhammapada stephen covey shakti gawain the bhagavad-gita ralph waldo emerson james allen the bible abraham maslow robert bly viktor frankl philip c mcgraw m scott peck clarissa pinkola estés louise hay james hillman richard carlson martin seligman joseph campbell with bill moyers marianne williamson ayn rand dale carnegie john gray benjamin franklin samuel smiles deepak chopra joseph murphy daniel goleman boethius david d burns florence scovell shinn susan jeffers[close]
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contents acknowledgments introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 vii 1 james allen as a man thinketh 1902 10 steve andreas charles faulkner nlp comprehensive team nlp the new technology of achievement 1994 14 marcus aurelius meditations 2nd century 22 martha beck finding your own north star how to claim the life you were meant to live 2001 26 the bhagavad-gita 30 the bible 36 robert bly iron john 1990 40 boethius the consolation of philosophy 6th century 46 alain de botton how proust can change your life 1997 50 william bridges transitions making sense of life s changes 1980 56 david d burns feeling good the new mood therapy 1980 62 joseph campbell with bill moyers the power of myth 1987 68 richard carlson don t sweat the small stuff and it s all small stuff 1997 74 dale carnegie how to win friends and influence people 1936 80 deepak chopra the seven spiritual laws of success 1994 86 paulo coelho the alchemist 1993 92 stephen covey the 7 habits of highly effective people 1989 96 mihaly csikszentmihalyi flow the psychology of optimal experience 1990 102 the dalai lama howard c cutler the art of happiness a handbook for living 1998 108 the dhammapada buddha s teachings 114 wayne dyer real magic creating miracles in everyday life 1992 120 ralph waldo emerson self-reliance 1841 126 clarissa pinkola estés women who run with the wolves 1992 132[close]
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50 self-help classics 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 viktor frankl man s search for meaning 1959 benjamin franklin autobiography 1790 shakti gawain creative visualization 1978 daniel goleman emotional intelligence why it can matter more than iq 1995 john gray men are from mars women are from venus 1992 louise hay you can heal your life 1984 james hillman the soul s code in search of character and calling 1996 susan jeffers feel the fear and do it anyway 1987 richard koch the 80/20 principle the secret of achieving more with less 1998 ellen j langer mindfulness choice and control in everyday life 1989 lao tzu tao te ching 5th3rd century bc maxwell maltz psycho-cybernetics 1960 abraham maslow motivation and personality 1954 philip c mcgraw life strategies doing what works doing what matters 1999 thomas moore care of the soul a guide for cultivating depth and sacredness in everyday life 1992 joseph murphy the power of your subconscious mind 1963 norman vincent peale the power of positive thinking 1952 carol s pearson the hero within six archetypes we live by 1986 m scott peck the road less traveled 1978 ayn rand atlas shrugged 1957 anthony robbins awaken the giant within 1991 florence scovell shinn the game of life and how to play it 1925 martin seligman learned optimism 1991 samuel smiles self-help 1859 pierre teilhard de chardin the phenomenon of man 1955 henry david thoreau walden 1854 marianne williamson a return to love 1994 50 more classics credits 138 144 150 154 160 166 170 176 182 188 194 198 204 210 216 222 228 234 240 246 252 258 264 270 276 282 288 294 301 vi[close]
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acknowledgments to each of the authors thank you writing your classic and for your unique contributions to personal development i ve had a great time reading your books and telling other people about them to the publishers thank you for your commitment to a field of writing that has never despite its popularity had much critical attention i hope that this book will generate even more readers for your titles to tamara lucas thanks for your love and inspiration and for putting up with the computer in the evenings to marion butler-bowdon thanks for so much over the last 35 years and for being the book s greatest promoter to noah and beatrice lucas thanks for your continued support and interest in what i do to nick brealey of nicholas brealey publishing thanks for your insights enthusiasm and close attention to the work and sally lansdell for editing and for others who have given feedback words of encouragement or a sense of perspective recently and over the years andrew arsenian andrew chang john melville giselle rosario my siblings caroline teresa charles edward piers and richard and their partners charles will valerie kate tammy and ruth my nieces and nephews celeste caleb jacob toby and conrad the pollocks joy norman jane cathy adrian and roger the taylors maurice barbara howard and jessica the misaks sonia albert natan and raphael sarah ravenscroft humphrey butler-bowdon paul goose fitzroy boulting richard koch ronnie gramazio frazer kirkman pria mitra ian hunter nick harford tom magarey david meegan and yvette rosemary karen and isobel at occ this book is also inspired by my father anthony william butler-bowdon 19132001[close]
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introduction the greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes william james 18421910 habits of thinking need not be forever one of the most significant findings in psychology in the last twenty years is that individuals can choose the way they think martin seligman learned optimism y ou will have heard many times that you can change your life by changing your thoughts and your mental habits but have you ever stopped to consider what that means this book identifies some of the most useful ideas from writings specifically devoted to personal transformation from the inside out i have called these books self-help classics you may already have an idea of what self-help is but that understanding should be deepened by the range of authors and titles covered in these pages if there is a thread running through the works it is their refusal to accept common unhappiness or quiet desperation as the lot of humankind they acknowledge life s difficulties and setbacks as real but say that we cannot be defined by these no matter how adverse the situation we always have room to determine what it will mean to us a lesson given us in two books covered here viktor frankl s man s search for meaning and boethius the consolation of philosophy to consciously decide what we will think not allowing genes or environment or fate to determine our path this is the essence of self-help a conventional view of self-help is that it deals with problems but most of the self-help classics are about possibilities they can help reveal your unique course in life form a bridge between fear and happiness or simply inspire you to be a better person samuel smiles wrote the original self-help in 1859 he feared that people would think his book a tribute to selfishness in fact it preached reliance on one s own efforts the never-say-die pursuit of a goal that did not wait on government help or any other kind of patronage smiles was originally a[close]
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introduction political reformer but came to the conclusion that the real revolutions happened inside people s heads he took the greatest idea of his century progress and applied it to personal life through telling the life stories of some of the remarkable people of his era he tried to show that anything was possible if you had the gall to try abraham lincoln is sometimes mentioned in self-help writing because he embodies the idea of limitless thinking yet his thoughts were not applied to himself he considered himself an ungainly depressive but to the potential he saw in a situation saving the union and freeing america of slavery lincoln s vision was not vainglorious he lived for something larger at its best self-help is not about the fantasies of the ego but involves the identification of a project goal ideal or way of being where you can make a big difference in so doing you can transform a piece of the world and yourself along with it the self-help phenomenon the symbols of the divine show up in our world initially at the trash stratum philip k dick valis the self-help book was one of the great success stories of the twentieth century the exact number purchased is impossible to calculate but this selection of 50 classics alone has sold over 150 million copies between them and if we consider the thousands of other titles the final number would run to more than half a billion the idea of self-help is nothing new but only in the twentieth century did it become a mass phenomenon books like how to win friends and influence people 1936 and the power of positive thinking 1952 were bought by ordinary people desperate to make something of their lives and willing to believe that the secrets of success could be found in a paperback maybe the genre took on its lowbrow image because the books were so readily available promised so much and contained ideas that you were unlikely to hear from a professor or a minister whatever the image people obviously had a new source of life guidance and they loved it for once we were not being told what we couldn t do but only that we should shoot for the stars 2[close]
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50 self-help classics a self-help book can be your best friend and champion expressing a faith in your essential greatness and beauty that is sometimes hard to get from another person because of its emphasis on following your star and believing that your thoughts can remake your world a better name for self-help writing might be the literature of possibility many people are amazed that the self-help sections in bookstores are so huge for the rest of us there is no mystery whatever recognizes our right to dream then shows us how to make the dream a reality is powerful and valuable the books this list of classics is the result of my own reading and research and might be quite different if another person were to undertake the same project the focus is on twentieth-century self-help books but much older works are also included because the self-help ethic has been with us through the ages the bible the bhagavad-gita marcus aurelius meditations and benjamin franklin s autobiography are examples of works that may not have been thought of as self-help before but i hope i can argue the case for their inclusion most of the contemporary writers are american and while this may seem like cultural imperialism in reality self-help values are universal there are a number of strands to self-help that offer specific guidance for example on relationships diet selling or self-esteem but the books covered here relate to the broader personal development aims of self-knowledge and increasing happiness through the selections i try to give a sense of the huge diversity of the genre many of the titles were easily selected because they are both famous and influential others are included because they fill a niche through their ideas every book had to have a level of readability and spark that defies the time and place that it was written at the end of women who run with the wolves clarissa pinkola estés lists a great array of books that might be of interest to readers she asks how do they go together what can one lend the other compare see what happens some combinations are bomb materials some create seed stock the same could be said of the self-help classics however to help draw out some themes below i have grouped the works into areas that may help you find what you are after there is an additional list 50 more classics at the end of the book 3[close]
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introduction the power of thought change your thoughts change your life james allen as a man thinketh steve andreas and charles faulkner nlp the new technology of achievement david d burns feeling good the new mood therapy daniel goleman emotional intelligence why it can matter more than iq louise hay you can heal your life ellen j langer mindfulness choice and control in everyday life joseph murphy the power of your subconscious mind norman vincent peale the power of positive thinking florence scovell shinn the game of life and how to play it martin seligman learned optimism following your dream achievement and goal setting dale carnegie how to win friends and influence people deepak chopra the seven spiritual laws of success paulo coelho the alchemist stephen covey the 7 habits of highly effective people benjamin franklin autobiography shakti gawain creative visualization susan jeffers feel the fear and do it anyway maxwell maltz psycho-cybernetics anthony robbins awaken the giant within secrets of happiness doing what you love doing what works martha beck finding your own north star how to claim the life you were meant to live mihaly csikszentmihalyi flow the psychology of optimal experience the dalai lama and howard c cutler the art of happiness a handbook for living 4[close]
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50 self-help classics the dhammapada buddha s teachings wayne dyer real magic creating miracles in everyday life john gray men are from mars women are from venus richard koch the 80/20 principle the secret of achieving more with less philip c mcgraw life strategies doing what works doing what matters marianne williamson a return to love the bigger picture keeping it in perspective marcus aurelius meditations boethius the consolation of philosophy alain de botton how proust can change your life william bridges transitions making sense of life s changes richard carlson don t sweat the small stuff and it s all small stuff viktor frankl man s search for meaning lao tzu tao te ching soul and mystery appreciating your depth robert bly iron john joseph campbell with bill moyers the power of myth clarissa pinkola estés women who run with the wolves james hillman the soul s code in search of character and calling thomas moore care of the soul a guide for cultivating depth and sacredness in everyday life carol s pearson the hero within six archetypes we live by m scott peck the road less traveled henry david thoreau walden making a difference transforming yourself transforming the world the bhagavad-gita the bible ralph waldo emerson self-reliance 5[close]
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