What are the most essential self-help books or just ones that

n-none?

book of the courtier is the only one that you should maybe consider reading/is worthwhile, but that's only if you're invested in understanding some of the social/courtly aspects of culture in the ~16th - 17th centuries

>>7627192
The bible is the only one you need

Meditations by my man Marcus.

Plutarch's Lives (get the Everyman edition)

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I'm talking books like pic related. I've been recently an avid reader of anything that will help understand me better myself, others and how to be a better person.

>>7627203
Mind giving an explanation how is it self-help?

>>7627192
the book of the courtier, castiglione

>>7627249
See >>7627198

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>>7627257
No thanks, I'll pass on this, I'm a pagan.

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You're deeply disappointing me /lit/, I thought you could do better than that.

>>7627252
They're written by Plutarch to show good virtue by showing the lives of virtuous people such as Pericles and Caesar.

>>7627305

nah, it's just that /lit/ ain't into self-help books as often times they are pretty shit.

i have read a couple, and they've been shit. the slight edge and the war of art. pretty worthless both of them. i mean they were cool as i read them, made me feel as if i was doing something; slightly motivating me. i'm reading eat that frog right now, and again it's the same feeling, but 2 months from now i will forget i ever read the book.
i continue searching for good self-help books however.

allen carr's easy way to stop smoking has been a revelation though, and one self-help book that certainly does it's job. only if you're a smoker who wants to quit however.

Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People

>>7627268
You should read the new testament anyways.

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Read Rewire by Richard O'connor its easy phychology but it helps you understand the mechanisms of your brain.
You might think you only need a change in a philosofical perspective of life but also the psychological is very important(mental health).
That could also lead you to beter conclusions about your life.

>>7627192
For meditation, mindfulness in plain english
For general improvement, 7 habits of highly effective people
Think and grow Rich is mostly shit but has a few good points, use your discretion
Charisma Myth is great
Rational male, if you want to undo feminist brainwashing

>>7627439
Tips fedora.

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Surprised nobody posted this yet.

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I like Michael Montaigne´s essays very much, also what he >>7627346 said. I also recommend the 48 Laws of Power, The Stranger and of course, who else could it be, based Neetz-Chan.
There simply are no books more uplifting than Human, All Too Human, Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spake Zarathustra.

fite me faggots

>>7628240
*tips fedora*Good'ay mam

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the phenomenology of spirit

>>7628240
Id like to see Nietzsche on the beach in some shorts

my diary, desu

>>7627192
Nigga you answered your own question with your picture.

Machiavelli's The Prince. It has every piece of guidance you need to be successful in life -- quite literally. Adapt it from the old style of medieval setting, that is of teaching to a prince on how to rule and govern, to modern day

>>7627192
I would recommend you to read all of them until you work out what is most essential for you.

Book of Five Rings
Meditations by Marcus
Dale Carnigie's How to stop worrying
Thinking, fast and slow
48 Laws of Power
Beyond Good and Evil
Montaigne
Schopenhauer's essays
Book of Disquiet
Russell on Authority and the Individual
Industrial society and it's future
The Alchemist
7 habits of highly effective people
Who moved my cheese
Alain de botton - The News


I've tainted this list with books which I think are totally inferior parlor trick self-help books, but their value is in gaining the skills to dismiss them for being such.

>>7629626

>It has every piece of guidance you need to be successful in life -- quite literally.

If you're an emotionally callous sociopath, perhaps.

>>7629627

reading The Alchemist almost made me kill myself. why do you post it? such a bait post baka desu senpai

>>7629673
but their value is in gaining the skills to dismiss them for being such.

o now i read the entirety of your post, not s mh anymore. good post. that makes sense yes.

>>7629677
Haven't read it and based on you guys won't read the alchemist. But why? Bad prose? Stupid ideas? What exactly?

>>7629689
It's something women always recommend as deep, that always means its value is in shallow appearance only.

>>7629667
And despite that it's still a good guide to successful life, sociopathic or not.

There's a difference in taking pleasure in pain and exacting pain in a calculating way so to benefit yourself. It's not that Machiavelli thought that a ruler should enjoy being a sociopath -- it's just that he thought that by being ruthless, pragmatic and shrewd that a person could be at his best.

Someone clearly didn't read the book.

>>7629689

prose is on the level of a 4th grade kid writing, but compared to the content, which is completely ridiculous cringe inducing new agey faux-wise bullshit, it's one of the stronger points of the book.

The Dhammapada is all you really need

I can't give you a specific book but the two self helpers that helped me understand what I was thinking
and very clearly told me about the dangers of ideology

Alan Watts
Robert Anton WIlson

Would The Prince help me stop being a conflict avoiding 'nice guy' and take control over my life and put my personal well being before that of the others around me? And is it a fairly understandable book and appliable in the day to day life?

>>7630215
>appliable to day to day life
All I see are engineering students thinking he made some sort of despicable me manual or something. You have to read it with your historical period goggles on and take your own conclusions for this day we don't know if it is a satire, one of thsoe books for young rulers or toilet paper

>>7630215
If you're reading books to stop being a "nice guy" you're probably just a bitch who needs to grow some balls

>>7628669
Fuck you, if you don´t like my list, make a better one.

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>>7630215
Probably yes. But I'd recommend you to start with pic related before getting into Prince. It really helps, as I've been myself such a nice guy but started slowly to change things and work on myself and aspects of me that I don't like.

OP here, tfw I'm taking a classes "Lecture of philosophical text" and we'll be reading and analyzing Prince for entire upcoming semester.

What do you think guys of making a chart with self-help books? So far titles I'd put there:
- Montaigne - Essays
- Machiavelli - Prince
- Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
- Balthazar Gratian - The Art of Worldy Wisdom
- Leopardi - Passions
- Bertrand Russell - The Conquest of Happiness
- Schopenhauer - The Wisdom of Life
- Max Stirner - Ego and his Own
- Emerson - Self-Reliance

why would anyone actually help themselves what the fuck

>>7631812
Because we no longer live in antiquity my friend and there's no Seneca or Epicurus to help you my dear friend, and Church is utterly failing at taking care of selves of believers. That's why you need to help yourself, to become better person, namely fully developed human being. Only Epicurus was so based to help himself on his own, rest of us, that is mediocre human beings needs a master, a guide on the path of life. And as said above there are no masters you need to help yourself in personal growth with the aid of so called self-help books.