Here’s the list of self-help books that I’ve read. If a book is in bold, I’m recommending it. If it has a ++ next to it, that means it’s one of my all-time favorites.
Be sure to read the explanation of the categories I’m splitting these into.
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Pragmatic Actionable Advice Books
This is the best kind of self-help book, because it tells you real things you can actually do to immediately improve your life.
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- ++Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter by Dan Ariely and Jeff Kreisler
- Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Jean Graves and Travis Bradbury
- The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins
- The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin
- Getting Back to Happy by Marc and Angel Chernoff
- The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
- How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams
- ++How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (Click here to see review)
- Make Your Bed by Admiral William McRaven
- Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics by Dan Harris
- Mind Hacking by John Hargrave
- The Nature Fix by Florence Williams
- Outer Order, Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin
- ++The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
- ++SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully by Jane McGonigal
- Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey (See Review Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6)
- Ten Percent Happier by Dan Harris
- ++The Weight Loss Habit by Steven Ray Marks (I might be a little bit biased about this one.)
- ++When by Dan Pink
- When to Jump by Michael Lewis
Psychology Books
While often not billed as explicit self-help books, understanding more about our own psychology can often be quite helpful. This can allow you to avoid cognitive traps, or even use them to your advantage.
- The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson
- The Happiness Curve by Jonathan Rauch
- ++The Honest Truth About Dishonesty by Dan Ariely
- Hooked by Nir Eyal
- How Not to Be Wrong – The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg (This is interesting and worth reading if you like math, but not so valuable in terms of psychology.)
- Influence by Robert Cialdini
- Irrationally Yours by Dan Ariely
- The Logic of Life by Tim Harford
- Payoff by Dan Ariely
- Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
- The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel (See Review)
- The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
- Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
- ++Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely
- Willpower Doesn’t Work by Benjamin Hardy (See Review)
Attitude and Outlook Books
I’m usually not a huge fan of these, because changing your mindset is something that is hard to do by choice. Often these books will inspire you, but that inspiration will be short-lived. The exception is if the book incorporates principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
- Everything is Fucked: A Book About Hope by Mark Manson
- ++Feeling Good by David Burns
- Fuck Feelings by Sarah Bennett and Michael Bennett
- The Gift of Imperfection by Brene Brown
- The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallway
- Into the Magic Shop by James Doty
- The Kindness Method by Shahroo Izadi
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson
- Twelve Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson
- Unfuck Yourself by Gary John Bishop
- You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
Books that don’t quite fit into a category
- 100 Side Hustles by Chris Guillebeau
- Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker
- ++Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Ronnlund, and Ola Rosling (This isn’t really a self-help or psychology book. But a lot of people’s unhappiness stems from them having a bleak outlook on the state of the world, and reading this can help cure that at the source.)
