Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

Help me, help you. Help me, help you. (Channeling my inner Jerry Maguire.)

That's funny, Juanita :) That movie created lots of one-liners!

I think I will finally read The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin. Either that or I will reread French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure :)

I read Happiness project last January. I picked up some great tidbits from it.

This year I'm going to go with Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. Looking forward to seeing what I can learn from this one.

Megan wrote: "I read Happiness project last January. I picked up some great tidbits from it.

This year I'm going to go with Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. Loo..."

I read Quiet this year! It is very good, and if you are an introvert you'll spend much of the book nodding your head and saying "it's not just me!" :)

Sara wrote: "Megan wrote: "I read Happiness project last January. I picked up some great tidbits from it.

This year I'm going to go with [book:Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking..."

Oh there's no doubt I'm introverted. :)

I haven't read a self improvement book in years. I'm going to have to look up some lists on that.

I might pick one of these Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain, The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy: A Handbook for Girl Geeks by Sam Maggs, and The Girl's Guide: Getting the hang of your whole complicated, unpredictable, impossibly amazing life by Melissa Kirsch.

Modern Mrs. Darcy (one of my most favorite bloggers) posted this list this morning - 7 books that will make you a better human: http://modernmrsdarcy.com/books-bette...

More great choices for "self-improvement". I think we all have room for improvement in our humanity :)

Over the weekend I was working an event with Yumi Sakugawa, who makes self-help-esque comics and zines. If anyone is dreading this prompt and just wants to get it over with quickly, There Is No Right Way to Meditate: And Other Lessons and Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe are both ~100 pages and mostly illustrations.

In her panel she also recommended Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch, which she made sound like it was part self-help part memoir. So if you aren't interested in self-help books, but enjoy memoirs, behind the scenes boooks, and David Lynch, this maight be a good pick for you.

I'm not a spiritual person, and I am probably the worst meditator in the history of meditation, so I probably won't go with and of the above suggestions. I was thinking of reading The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer. I'm a big fan of her and her husband, Neil Gaiman, and it's been on my tbr forever.

I also read Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson this year for the "Book Based Entirely on its Cover" prompt. I would classify this book as self-help/humour. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea, as I think Jenny Lawson and I have different senses of humour, but I know she's very popular and the book was more or less enjoyable.

Also, one of my favorite books of all time is The Practice of Everyday Life by Michel de Certeau. Now this book is theory, and not self-help. It's more of a push back against Foucauldian discourse on structures of power. I used to recommend it to my students when I was a TA and they were feeling despondent and overwhelmed by the theoretical texts and articles detailing the issues of modern society.

Amazon has several self-help books on sale today on as Kindle Daily Deals:
http://smile.amazon.com/b/ref=sr_aj?n...

Just read Jesus > Religion

I decided to kick off my 2016 reading with this prompt in the hope it will help me with my New Year's Resolution! So yesterday I read Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert - I haven't read her bestseller Eat Pray Love, but was interested in reading her take on creativity after seeing her TED talk. Last year I read Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, which I think was more useful.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondō

Add a Gabrielle Bernstein

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...

This is what I plan to read for this prompt!!

Here's another list of self-help books. I like how the writer frames these:

http://www.bustle.com/articles/56253-...

Juanita wrote: "Here's another list of self-help books. I like how the writer frames these:

http://www.bustle.com/articles/56253-......"

I LOVE THIS LIST!! :) Thank you!!

I'm reading Getting Past Your Breakup: How to Turn a Devastating Loss into the Best Thing That Ever Happened to You - I'm currently going through a separation, and I'm hoping this will help me find my way to the other (better) side.

This is one of the prompts that I was least looking forward to (political memoir being the main one). I generally don't enjoy non-fiction, and I really don't have any interest in self-improvement books because many of the ones I have skimmed through have been very cheesy or just very common sense.

I'm reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking because I've heard good things about it, and because as a natural introvert, I think it might be nice to get a more positive perspective on it than "you need to speak up more."

I have a copy of Trump's book Trump: The Art of the Deal that has been sitting on my book shelf for years. I guess it would be an appropriate time to finally read the thing. I wonder if this would satisfy the memoir category - or the self-improvement category since I own a business.

I'm not sure it would qualify as self-improvement. I think there would be better businessmen (or human beings) to emulate.

Oh well.

Sorry, Patricia. Just thinking out loud.

Does Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience count as a self-improvement book?

I read Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness by Sharon Salzberg. It is an amazing book that has the potential to change one's life by giving practical advice and exercises on cultivating lovingkindness, joy, compassion and equanimity. It is also insightful and beautiful to read.

I'm reading I Am That Girl: How to Speak Your Truth, Discover Your Purpose, and #bethatgirl, which could be better, but at least is not trying to sell me something.

Would Lessons from Tara: Life Advice from the World’s Most Brilliant Dog by David Rosenfelt qualify as a self-improvement book?

I read Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert in February and I LOVED it. It left me feeling so inspired and made me want to pursue my creativity even more. If you're feeling in a creative slump I highly, highly recommend this book.

Patricia wrote: "Would Lessons from Tara: Life Advice from the World’s Most Brilliant Dog by [author:David Ros..."

I am interested in doing this one as well and I think it would count!

Nicole wrote: "Patricia wrote: "Would Lessons from Tara: Life Advice from the World’s Most Brilliant Dog by ..."

I'll will go for this one and will look forward to your review as well.

I read, and LOVED Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps. For anyone just becoming a 'grown-up' it is a great help. For anyone who has already 'adulted' for many years, it is still a hilarious book.

Loved You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life. I can never understand how these people can make so much sense just telling me things I really already know. But's it's like something just clicks!

Dreading this prompt. I've tried samples of several books that I thought maybe I could get through, but ugh. When Audible had a sale recently I saw Dick Van Dyke's book described "serves as an instruction book on how to embrace old age with a positive attitude." I'm going with that.

Keep Moving: And Other Tips About Old Age

I read this as anything that could be learning new things to improve yourself so ended up reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves. It's very clever, and the author has quite a good sense of humour, but it took a while to read (even though it's quite short) as it is ultimately a book about grammar...

I got given Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking for my birthday, I can't wait to read it! :)

I read Discipline That Restores: Strategies to Create Respect, Cooperation, and Responsibility in the Classroom to help with classroom management and positive discipline at school.

I read Teach like your Hair's on Fire by Rafe Asquith. As a teacher, I think it could count.

I ended up reading All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks for this prompt. I don't really like self-help books, but I'm a big fan of bell hooks, so I thought I would check it out. I don't want to say the book was bad - because it wasn't - but I'm not sure it was the best book for me in a self help context. The book dealt primarily with issues of black femininity and religion and spirituality. As I am neither black nor spiritual, the advice didn't really apply to me - though reading books meant for people living a different life is always a good exercise in empathy and knowledge.