Welcome back to the book column and the new year. A new year means a new reading list. While many people choose to make their New Year’s resolutions about working out and saving money, not everyone decides to involve books. However, books can be great inspiration for your resolution.
People often stereotype self-help books as obvious, motivational essays that are written by people who can’t find happiness themselves. This assumption is not true.
A student’s new year can be much improved by resolutions, and self-help books can add validity to these resolutions. Sometimes the start of second semester can seem daunting. Students have big goals that won’t always have immediate results. Stay strong. I’ve included my favorite self-help titles for college students and twenty somethings.
“The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Life” by Jennifer Byrne, is subtitled “100+ Ways to Hack Your Look, Love, and Work.” This self help book is the perfect life advice for any young woman on the road to success. It includes tips for everyday victories and problems. The best part of these tips? They require as little effort as possible, so you can finish that job application and have time to binge watch your favorite show on Netflix.
“Freshman Year of Life” by Mindsumo Community is another self-help book that can be useful to both young men and women. The book includes 38 essays written by millennials for millennials. All of these essays are about surviving their first year of college, tips, stories and step-by-step guides to living the college life. Even though most college students should have a good idea of their preferred lifestyle, New Year's is a great time to re-evaluate that lifestyle. This book could help students to make the most of their college career.
“Originals” by Adam Grant takes a new perspective on self-help books. It breaks all the rules. This book does not acknowledge improving the self but rather improving our world. Grant argues that original thinkers improve our world not because they have different habits from normal people but because they work through bad habits to succeed anyway. Readers will read stories of original thinkers in politics, sports and entertainment. Hopefully this will inspire students to better our world as well.
“Tuesdays with Morrie” by Mitch Albom is a non-traditional self-help book. Though this story is set up as a novel, readers can learn valuable lessons about life from reading it. Based on a true story, Professor Morrie teaches one last lesson on love, life and death to his previous favorite student. Committing to a new workout plan is great, but try to gain a better understanding of the meaning of life this new year.
Of course, any attempt to read more for your resolution is an amazing idea, but these self-help books will be great additions to your reading list. They are all available at the Bloomington Barnes & Noble location. An entire section of shelves are dedicated to self-help books, so if the books that interest me don’t quite fit your resolution, check out the rest of the selection.
