Welcome to Booking Through Thursday, a weekly bookish meme about books and reading for everyone who loves both. Booking Through Thursday was first hosted by Deb. With permission, I’ve restarted it in 2026.
This week’s prompt:
On a sliding scale of they’re the elixir of life to no one tells ME what to do, how do you feel about self-help books? Do you read them? Only certain kinds or at certain times? As background noise while you clean ALL the things.
Let us know!
Self-help books: Yea or nay?
How to play:
- On your blog: Copy the question/image for your blog, answer it there, and post a quick comment here with a link or trackback to your post so we can read it.
- On social media: Copy the image, answer the prompt, and post a quick comment here with a link.
- Right here: Answer in the comments and start the discussion here. No need to have a blog to play.
Note: If it’s your first time here, your comment may end up in moderation. (My spam filter is aggressive.) I’ll be in after my writing sprints to set it free.
P.S. The prompt is always open, and you don’t have to play on Thursday. Comment whenever you like!
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Writing Wrongs 
Here’s where I admit that I have a love/hate thing going with self-help books. I have times when I’m absolutely certain I’ll find the silver bullet, the magic formula, or what-have-you in the next book. Other times, I’m all: NO MORE.
Also, according to my reading log, I have apparently read 134 books on writing (!).
Hey, I got a master’s degree, hoping the program would somehow teach me all the mysteries of writing, and all I figured out is that best you can do is aim at something and then see how far you got, and then try again and hope to do better. Having standards is important.
Also the most useful thing is having a reader who gets what you’re trying to do and can help you find your way back onto the tracks when you fall.
A big part of learning is actually doing the thing. I have to keep reminding myself of this.
Me, too! What I really want is the magic wand, the Cinderella transformation, the instant gratification… sometimes I resent the amount of work it takes.