Fiction sucks, read self-help books
Raccoons post got me thinking.
There certainly are a lot of overhyped self-help books out there. A few months ago i finaly got around to read 'Thinking fast and slow'. I would agree that the core idea of the book can be summarized in a few paragraphs. The rest ist lot's of mildly interesting experiments that the auther did. I don't think it's a bad book but i was constantly debating with myself wheather i should just put it down and stop bothering, because at times it got really boring, but then a bit more interesting again shortly after. In the end i finished it. It is so long! And it has gotten so much praise, that i seriously wonder if all those journalists really read the whole thing. It is really fricking long and lots of parts are so sciency with no clear application to your own life, that i found it hard to read.
So clearly this was a book i did not enjoy. It wasn't entertaining nor did i learn anything substantial for my life apart for some amusing experiments.
But i read other self-help books that i did enjoy. 'Why has nobody told me this before?' by Dr. Julie Smith was the book that in part is the reason why i finaly started journaling, which i find to be a very valuable tool to keep my mental health in check. Are there chapters in there that i did not enjoy or that i could not use to better myself? Sure. But i took at least one thing from that book. That's enough for me.
'Atomic habbits' i also enjoyed. It helped me to finally find a way to get out of bed quicker in the morning.
Sure you can always argue that these books hold nothing new and that everything already has been said and that this advice has therefore no value. But what's the point in that? It is not about if something has already been said. It is about how it is said. Is it in a form that finally clicks with you. That you can use and apply in yout life. At the end of the day every story ever has already been told basically. There are no new stories. Not really. All the advice in all the self-help books can probably be found in the bible already. It's not about that. It's about if it is written in a form that appeals to you, that you can understand and resonate with at this point in your life.
On the other hand there is a lot of fiction that has absolutely no value and won't improve yout life one bit. I love the Jack Reacker books by Lee Child. Is there anything to learn in there? No. Really no. It's just entertainment. That's alright. Not every read has to be life altering.
Ok but what about the classics? 1984, Crime and Punishment? 1984 is an amazing book. It deserves the all time classic status it has. It really can open your eyes to how important language is and all that. I really liked that book. It made me feel uncumfortable, it got me thinking. Really good.
Crime and punishement i could not finish. Personal reasson: There is a scene in there that describes in great detail how a horse get's whipped to death. It is only in a dream but i can't read stuff like that, it just makes me sick. If it only were for a few sentences, ok. But it goes on and on and on and then i just stopped. 'Frick that' i thougth and put it down and never finished it.
I read 'The old man and the sea'. Loved it. Such good writing. Did i take anything with me? Don't think so.
I read 'Mobby Dick'. Could not finish it. I read a shortened version years prior and if i remember correctly i finished it then. But the unshortened versions that you can read today are so extremely long and frankly just boring and really hard to get through that i just quit. I think it was again at a scene where there is explicit whale tourturing. Ok maybe that's on me. Probably shouldn't read THE whale hunting book, when you habe a problem with whale hunting, o whale.
My point is: There are good self-help books, there are terrible, overhyped ones. There is good, life-altering fiction, and there is fiction that just wants to entertain. Just read. Read the highs and the lows. Don't read reviews. Don't look at how many stars a book has on amazon. Just read. Form your own opinion. No one else can do that for you.