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Product Description
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 five 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 popular myths, while also offering clear-headed, practical and often counterintuitive advice on a range of subjects, 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.
About the Author
Oliver Burkeman is a feature writer for the Guardian. He is a winner of the Foreign Press Association's Young Journalist of the Year award, and has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. He writes a popular weekly column on psychology, This Column Will Change Your Life, and has reported from London, Washington, and New York. www.oliverburkeman.com
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I started reading this book with a combination of interest and enthusiasm. Burkeman starts by (rightly) criticising many of the self-proclaimed, often self-taught gurus and life coaches who provide advice. Much of the advice by these authors is often wrong - at best well-intentioned but misguided advice through to downright manipulative advice in the interests of making those authors rich.
Burkeman begins by discussing useful tidbits of advice that he has gathered from RESEARCH done by psychologists and other behavioural scientists at reputable universities. So I applaud Burkeman for the first 92 pages of his book.
BUT then the book gets weaker from a third of the way in. In the second two-thirds of his book, the tone of the book seems to shift. Rather than giving advice based on published research, he often ends up giving advice based on his own life or that he has come across. Burkeman often talks about books or even blogs that he's read - and these are often books written by self-taught experts - and then picking the bits of the advice that Burkeman likes best. Sorry, but how is he qualified to give advice? Oh, he's not. He's no more qualified than many of the people he criticises in the first place.
For example, he advocates getting rid of electronic organising devices and instead relying on index cards for notes and organisation. But is that based on research? No, it's based on a few pithy quotes and the fact that he personally prefers index cards over electronic devices.
There are some helpful bits of advice within the book, but what really annoyed me was the fact that I almost felt tricked by Burkeman. I felt that he started off the book dispensing advice based on rigorous research, and then shifted to giving advice based on his own life.
Another thing is that Burkeman writes in a knowing, slightly superior tone. Some may find it witty and amusing, but I found it slightly annoying. Just a personal opinion of course.
Burkeman begins by discussing useful tidbits of advice that he has gathered from RESEARCH done by psychologists and other behavioural scientists at reputable universities. So I applaud Burkeman for the first 92 pages of his book.
BUT then the book gets weaker from a third of the way in. In the second two-thirds of his book, the tone of the book seems to shift. Rather than giving advice based on published research, he often ends up giving advice based on his own life or that he has come across. Burkeman often talks about books or even blogs that he's read - and these are often books written by self-taught experts - and then picking the bits of the advice that Burkeman likes best. Sorry, but how is he qualified to give advice? Oh, he's not. He's no more qualified than many of the people he criticises in the first place.
For example, he advocates getting rid of electronic organising devices and instead relying on index cards for notes and organisation. But is that based on research? No, it's based on a few pithy quotes and the fact that he personally prefers index cards over electronic devices.
There are some helpful bits of advice within the book, but what really annoyed me was the fact that I almost felt tricked by Burkeman. I felt that he started off the book dispensing advice based on rigorous research, and then shifted to giving advice based on his own life.
Another thing is that Burkeman writes in a knowing, slightly superior tone. Some may find it witty and amusing, but I found it slightly annoying. Just a personal opinion of course.
52 of 56 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I hate self-help books. Well, that's not quite true. I'm drawn to the idea of reading a book that will make me a better person, more compassionate and patient, more productive. Invariably, however, when I open the pages of one I'm put off by the zealotry, the patronising and trite aphorisms and the uncomfortable moral underpinnings of most self-help philosophies.
This book escapes those charges. It is fantastic for its critical but insightful survey of the self-help genre. It is sceptical, rather than cynical, and I mean that in the best possible way. The central message is not that self-improvement is impossible, rather that self-improvement is incremental. Reading it was like experiencing a series of miniature-epiphanies, rather than a road to Damascus conversion that has erased my messy, procrastinating, irritable former self.
This book might change your life, but - like the column - only a tiny bit at a time.
This book escapes those charges. It is fantastic for its critical but insightful survey of the self-help genre. It is sceptical, rather than cynical, and I mean that in the best possible way. The central message is not that self-improvement is impossible, rather that self-improvement is incremental. Reading it was like experiencing a series of miniature-epiphanies, rather than a road to Damascus conversion that has erased my messy, procrastinating, irritable former self.
This book might change your life, but - like the column - only a tiny bit at a time.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is culled from a series of Guardian newspaper columns, and represent one newspaper hack's attempts to use self-help materials to better his life. As such, it could easily have been an excuse for a truly British middle-class whinge, based on one of those mish-mash columns of semi-coherent ramblings that really tells us nothing at all, and that seems to exist between the gardening section and Sudoku in the pages of UK newspapers' weekend sections with the sole purpose of making the reader feeling slightly soiled and withered.
Thankfully, Oliver Burkeman keeps the cheap-shots largely in check, and whilst there is a little of the "woe is me that I sojourn in a national newspaper office and write for one of the biggest publications in the world, but I really am a disorganised slob", it soon becomes very clear that the author is genuinely interested in scrutinising this material and sifting for insights. His prose is quite informal and breezy, but he does a fine job of praising the authors that he feels are not snake-oil salesman (and so Cal Newport and David Allen emerge relatively unscathed), whereas others who seem to promise the earth receive something of a dressing down (Stephen Covey and Tony Robbins both come in for some criticism).
I think this brings up an important point- if, like me, you have been influenced by various self-help gurus over the years it might be easy to get defensive if your particular favourite life-coach or guru comes in for some flak from Burkeman, but it is important to realise that he is not the 'Richard Dawkins' of self-help scepticism and he isn't trying to debunk the whole field, although he does appeal substantially to contemporary sociological/psychological research (in this, he often parallels the equally interesting 59 Seconds: Think a little, change a lot). Consequently, this is a useful book for for the self-help aficionado looking to contextualise their own thinking, and also for the individual new to a field that even the most diehard self-help consumer must admit has its share of charlatans.
On a final note, I really like the design of this book by Keenan, complete with its faux-dust-jacket, and it is a nicely put together book to browse and read.
Thankfully, Oliver Burkeman keeps the cheap-shots largely in check, and whilst there is a little of the "woe is me that I sojourn in a national newspaper office and write for one of the biggest publications in the world, but I really am a disorganised slob", it soon becomes very clear that the author is genuinely interested in scrutinising this material and sifting for insights. His prose is quite informal and breezy, but he does a fine job of praising the authors that he feels are not snake-oil salesman (and so Cal Newport and David Allen emerge relatively unscathed), whereas others who seem to promise the earth receive something of a dressing down (Stephen Covey and Tony Robbins both come in for some criticism).
I think this brings up an important point- if, like me, you have been influenced by various self-help gurus over the years it might be easy to get defensive if your particular favourite life-coach or guru comes in for some flak from Burkeman, but it is important to realise that he is not the 'Richard Dawkins' of self-help scepticism and he isn't trying to debunk the whole field, although he does appeal substantially to contemporary sociological/psychological research (in this, he often parallels the equally interesting 59 Seconds: Think a little, change a lot). Consequently, this is a useful book for for the self-help aficionado looking to contextualise their own thinking, and also for the individual new to a field that even the most diehard self-help consumer must admit has its share of charlatans.
On a final note, I really like the design of this book by Keenan, complete with its faux-dust-jacket, and it is a nicely put together book to browse and read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A near perfect balance
This is a concise dissection of the personal improvement genre that strikes an almost perfect balance between practical insight and entertainment. Read more
Published 14 days ago by Stuart
Great English Humour
Recommended by a friend and well worth a read. It actually got better as it went on. Its the sort of book that mocks lightly at the pop psychology of the 20th and 21st C, while... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Dr Certain
A good summary of the self help landscape with some great pearls of...
This book feels more like a collection of magazine articles than a book but is a fun and informative read. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Tina P
A good buy
Recommended to me by a friend I will happily recommend Help ! It is well written, well researched and brings a lot of reality, common sense and pleasant humour to the world of... Read more
Published 4 months ago by JunoWho
Well written
This is a well written book, delivered with a pleasant style and backed up by good research. It is not a self help book, nor does it claim to be, but it does make you think and is... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Asl23
Still smiling.
If the title (or the cover) makes you smile, then you will enjoy the book. For not only is this a sober review of self-help (personal and professional) literature which also sits... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Pilar
Best self-help book I've read!
I enjoy reading self help books even though I don't always put what they recommend into practice. This book is almost a de-bunking of the self help industry and yet it is more... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Damaskcat
Funny and helpful
I'm normally very sceptical of popular psychology books, having been exposed to the full range of them working in the self-help section of a bookshop. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Eleanor
Why is this entire book in italics?
After purchasing the Kindle version I was disappointed to find that the entire book is in italics which I find to be such a poor reading experience that I won't bother reading it. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Martin
Not really necessary if you regularly read the column, but nice to see...
I regularly read Oliver Burkeman's column in The Guardian, and I really like. I think he strikes exactly the right tone towards the 'self-help community' - he's sceptical and... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Jezza
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