PRINTNo help at all
Some self-help books fall short of their goals
April 30, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
The self-help section of your local bookstore has solutions to almost any problem. Have a broken heart that needs mending? Check. Indulged in one too many Krispy Kremes? Got it covered. Just stay away from these titles, or risk further screwing up your life.
How to Marry a Fabulous Man by Pari Livermore
Tired clichés about submissive women winning men’s hearts should have died out in the Dark Ages. Platitudes such as “Be the moth, not the flame” aren’t the way to a modern man’s heart. Plus, matchmaker Livermore’s advice — “Note each time he asks you out, and decline every third time” — is more about calculated games than finding true romance.
Eat This, Not That by David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding
Any book that tells you to eat Big Macs (instead of Whoppers) knows how to sell itself. But can this self-proclaimed diet book turn that beer gut into a Hasselhoff six-pack? Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame would beg to differ.
Psycho-Cybernetics 2000 by Bobbe L. Sommer and Mark Falstein
This inner happiness manual updates the original Psycho-Cybernetics from the ’60s with lessons on reprogramming your brain through visualizations and affirmations. Forty years later, Sommer and Falstein are still ahead of their time. Better leave the sci-fi tricks to Captain Kirk.
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