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10 "Self-Help" Books That Should Not Exist

Posted at 5:00 AM Jan 07, 2009

By Kathleen Willcox
Fun fact: type "self help" into Google and you'll get about 70,000,000 results. Why are we so eager to make over our lives, our partners, our pet goats?
Maybe it's the whole "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" thing, though I'm confident our forefathers didn't intend their Declaration to spawn a roughly $8.6 billion self-improvement plague. Learn to hug your inner child, build a yurt or lose 21 Pounds in 21 Days, all for the bargain price of $16.47. It's quicker and cheaper than actually consulting a doctor or shrink.
Is it all a SHAM? No. But in addition to fending off obvious offenders like Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, The Game, and The Mystery Method, we're faced with a deluge of patently preposterous offerings from Amazon.com (183,789 and counting), not to mention women's mags and the airwaves. Here then, is our list of the 10 silliest, most nefarious and glaringly superfluous.
10. Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul, by Jack Canfield

ZOMG you guys, can you smell that? The book for Everyone Who Believes in a Dream is finally here! Try not to slurp down the tepid, monosodium glutamate-infused, salmonella-soaked, antibiotic-and-hormone injected concoction in one sitting. Once the Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken and Sanjaya Malakar sections have ripped out chunks of your soul with the sheer power of their screechy vibratos, leave some for the producers, stylists, judges and yes -- fans.
( And there are more behind this cut. Check it out! )