Beware self-help authors
Sorry, but this will be just a little humorous. I am a self help author, among other things, and I think I received a backhanded complement recently, which I just blogged about at my happiness blog.
Just because I feel like it, I will reproduce that blog post, “Happiness books versus real books“, here:
Written by DavidLloyd Garver of the Norwich Bulletin is obviously not a big fan of happiness books, but at least he refers to mine asâŚÂ âSome of these popular happy books include, âClimb your Stairway to Heaven: The 9 Habits of Maximum Happinessââ.
The problem with Mr. Garver is probably not so much his grumpiness, but his poor sense of direction. See what else he says, âThe reason you canât find the kind of book youâre looking for is that all the self-help books about how to be happy fill up the shelves. Ironically, this makes some of us quite unhappy.â
Fortunately for us and for the sake of clarity, he does specify what kind of book youâre looking for. A real book. Hey, those are his words, not mine.
If books about happiness and self-help are not what he is looking for, why is he looking in the self-help section? I have to assume he is simply lost, because obviously he wonât find any real books there. Either that, or he is a very grumpy man with a great sense of theatrics (not to mention irony). And nothing makes a grumpy person grumpier than a happy person saying to him, âSmile!â (Yes, grumpy people really, really hate happy photographers!)
If the bookstores would kindly provide visitors with maps when they enter the store, people who donât want to be happy can avoid accidentally finding themselves surrounded by all those threatening smiley faces. And they can get on with the business of finding âreal booksâ, which apparently bookstores donât seem to stock anymore.
That oughta solve the problem.
HmmâŚI wonder what he would think of a happiness blog. Â
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