Review
Burkeman isn't pushy or preachy. He makes no promises of massive personality makeovers or psychological transformations...Burkeman doesn't claim to have cracked the code to perpetual joy, but he does deliver a logical and entertaining set of musings on managing life. --Scotsman
This is a genuinely useful book; Burkeman is not in the business of pouring automatic scorn; he really does want us to become slightly happier . . . Help! is win-win. If you do find yourself with those problems which, though potentially tractable, are disproportionately aggravating, then you will find solace and good advice here. If you do not, or rather think you do not, then you will be amused anyway - and you still might learn something helpful. Either way, you won't need to read another self-help book again. --Guardian
This is a genuinely useful book... Help! is win-win. If you do find yourself with those problems which, though potentially tractable, are disproportionately aggravating, then you will find solace and good advice here. If you do no, then you will be amused anyway - and you still might learn something helpful. Either way, you won't need to read another self-help book again. --Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
Burkeman proves an excellent guide, separating all the schmaltzy hokum on achieving inner bliss on your lunch break from the modest, but genuinely enlightening research on human happiness. --Big Issue
Filters the actually-quite-useful from the potentially-very-harmful-nonsense...quite inspirational. --Mark Watson, comedian
This is a genuinely useful book; Burkeman is not in the business of pouring automatic scorn; he really does want us to become slightly happier . . . Help! is win-win. If you do find yourself with those problems which, though potentially tractable, are disproportionately aggravating, then you will find solace and good advice here. If you do not, or rather think you do not, then you will be amused anyway - and you still might learn something helpful. Either way, you won't need to read another self-help book again. --Guardian
This is a genuinely useful book... Help! is win-win. If you do find yourself with those problems which, though potentially tractable, are disproportionately aggravating, then you will find solace and good advice here. If you do no, then you will be amused anyway - and you still might learn something helpful. Either way, you won't need to read another self-help book again. --Nicholas Lezard, Guardian
Burkeman proves an excellent guide, separating all the schmaltzy hokum on achieving inner bliss on your lunch break from the modest, but genuinely enlightening research on human happiness. --Big Issue
Filters the actually-quite-useful from the potentially-very-harmful-nonsense...quite inspirational. --Mark Watson, comedian
Product Description
How do you solve the problem of human happiness? It’s a subject that has occupied some of the greatest philosophers of all time, from Aristotle to Paul McKenna – but how do we sort the good ideas from the terrible ones? Over the past few years, Oliver Burkeman has travelled to some of the strangest outposts of the ‘happiness industry’ in an attempt to find out. In Help!, the first collection of his popular Guardian columns, Burkeman presents his findings. It’s a witty and thought-provoking exploration that punctures many of self-help’s most common myths, while also offering clear-headed, practical and of ten counter-intuitive advice on a range of topics from stress, procrastination and insomnia to wealth, laughter, time management and creativity. It doesn’t claim to have solved the problem of human happiness. But it might just bring us one step closer.
