Some new books to explore

In the absence of time to read a lot of books very carefully and provide detailed, academic and nuanced reviews, here are some overviews of books I've been looking at:


Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway is one of the self-help classics of the 1980s. Apart from having an exceptionally good title, it is also written in a lively and engaging manner, is intensely practical and on the whole was probably deserving of its bestseller status. The author Susan Jeffers is a psychologist, and uses her autobiography quite skillfully in the book as inspiration and moral lesson. Like some other self help greats (How To Win Friends and Influence People), Feel the Fear... started life as a course at a community college, and is filled with stories of students and patients that Jeffers has known in the course of her professional life. I've actually read the book several times, and have found it incredibly helpful over the years. Indeed, it is one that I often recommend to people. Strangely, I haven't quite been able to situate it in my thesis, and so far it remains un-referenced in my dissertation. I continue to read it, however (and I have the audio version, too!).

The use of axiom, proverb and pithy sayings is endemic in self-help literature, and whenever I come across a particularly hoary old one I am always drawn back to Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack, the source of so many nuggets of popular wisdom, such as:

"Light purse, heavy heart." "To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals."

and

"He that won't be counsell'd, can't be help'd."

This collection of folk sayings was drawn from Franklin's years of publishing a popular yearly almanac. It really is the most extraordinary book, and quite fun. I recommend you read it.




I have been aware of the work of Geneen Roth for many years. She was big in the 80s and popularised the idea of compulsive eating. She seems to have moved beyond the addiction model now, and in this, her most recent bestselling book, she seems to be associating obesity with a lack of spirituality. Oprah loved this book and featured an interview with Roth talking about Women, Food and God in her final series, thereby guaranteeing the book's enormous success. Like many of the writers that emerged from the recovery movement, Roth is compulsively confessional (her books are very similar in style to those of Melody Beattie), and she uses this confessional mode to establish quite an intense intimacy with her readers. This book is quite mystical in tone, as the title would warn, and veers occasionally into the downright enigmatic, with Roth toying with ideas that seem inspired by both Zen Buddhism and Vedanta. Interesting that the publisher took the risk of identifying this book as being solely for women, when in fact its content is not so exclusive that it would rule out a male readership. They obviously know who's going to be buying the book. Still, I'm not sure I would have chosen that title, and as it is I am too embarrassed to read the book on the train.

Just a gripe - this book's jacket design does what every bookseller in the world hates the most: it puts the subtitle ("50 Lessons to Find and Hold Happiness") above the book's actual title (Life's Little Detours) and in clearer font. This means that 90% of people will remember the book by the subtitle (I do), which means when they look for it on-line or go into a shop and ask for it...well, you can figure out why this is a disaster. It's a lovely little book, in the age-old "Numbered List" format ("50 Lessons...") which seems to be eternally popular. Each lesson started life as a newspaper column, and the author's sparing, journalistic style makes this book all the more successful and readable. I bought it on a whim when I was absently wandering through a bookshop, and liked the few pages I read. Not sure that it belongs anywhere in my dissertation, though.

The Daily Word

Probably the most influential work of the New Thought church The Unity School of Christianity is its monthly prayer guide and day-book The Daily Word. This little square journal has been in print since 1924, and its influence has been credited by people as diverse as Will Smith and Toni Morrison! Rosemary Fillmore Rhea tells a great story in her autobiography about meeting Robert Wagner's mother at a Beverly Hills hotel and discovering that not only was she a long-time subscriber, but had given gift subscriptions to all of the hotel staff.
The Daily Word is a pocket-sized monthly magazine (which has recently become bi-monthly, and is also available on-line) which provides a daily inspirational quote and a relevant section of scripture.



The page-a-day format makes it pretty much a modern-day version of the antique format of the almanac.
Its longevity has afforded it a special place in American popular religious culture, and by all accounts it has fans across the Christian spectrum, despite its central theology being decidedly unorthodox. Each issue starts out with a couple of stories by devoted readers who credit the miraculous effect of The Daily Word during specific periods of struggle or hardship in their lives. The little journal seems to hold for some a talismanic power, an I have read stories of people giving away its pages to those they perceive to be in need.
The magazine also serves a function within the structure of the Unity church itself. It is the focal point of prayer and meditation for all members, and it is freely available to newcomers and visitors to the church.
The vast amount of text that must have been produced in creating the magazine over the years has been put to good use in recent times with the compilation of book-length guides on specialist topics, a la Chicken Soup for the Soul. Daily Word for Weight Loss and The Daily Word for Women are two examples.

40 Day Mind Fast Soul Feast

The almanac and the devotional day-book are key ancestors of self-help books, and their continued existence in the 21st century interests me greatly.
Since the birth of printing people have been able to get religious day-books intended to help with prayer and contemplation. A quote from scripture was provided for each day of the year, and the book served as a spiritual companion for the literate person who may not have had access to a full version of the Bible.
Almanacs had evolved in China, where they were (and still are) cheaply printed and produced daily guidebooks showing the phases of the moon, the astrological significance of the day (including what is and isn't lucky for that day) and snatches of poetry and philosophy.
At some point in the West the two types of book combined, and almanacs became filled with pious injuctions and pieces of folk-wisdom, along with recommendations for farming and housekeeping. Almanacs became popular in Elizabethan times, and they really took off later in America, the most famous being produced, of course, by one Mr. Benjamin Franklin.
My own grandmother was a great fan of day-books, and throughout my childhood she used Francis Gay's Friendship Book. I was always fascinated by the quote of the day, and many of them have stayed with me. I fancied myself a deep thinker as a child.
In recent years the devotional/inspirational/self-development day-book has experienced something of a resurgence, thanks in part to the output of Hay House, Louise Hay's new-age publishing company. They have breathed new life into this quaint form by producing colourful and attractive (and eminently saleable) hardcover day-books featuring the words of their most popular authors.
I have recently completed Michael Bernard Beckwith's perpetual day-book 40 Day Mind Fast Soul Feast. As the title would suggest, the book covers a 40-day period. Naturally the siginificance of the 40 days is obvious to anyone from a Christian background, and the book was obviously concieved as a kind of lenten guide, though Beckwith is not coming from any kind of conventional Christian perspective.

The book is posited as a practical guide to spiritual living, a guide to "how to arrive at profound inner fulfillment." This is quite a claim, but it is exactly the sort of claim that most self-help books make. The claim promises to turn reading from an act of education, enjoyment or distraction into something altogether more metaphysical: reading as enlightenment.
Michael Bernard Beckwith would be familiar to many as one of the most popular faces in Rhonda Byrne's film The Secret. He is the head of the hugely popular Agape church in California, and is one of the superstars of 21st Century New Thought Christianity. He teaches a supremeley palatable philosophy of positive thinking, easy-going spirituality and inclusive, progressive Christianity. His worship style draws on the great traditions of African-American church worship, with high-energy oratory and incredible music (provided by his equally brilliant wife, Rickie Byars Beckwith). And while his preaching style is steeped in the traditions of African-American oratory, the Agape community itself is multi-racial, creating quite a new vibe in American worship.
Each day this book provides a central idea to contemplate, followed by a brief exegesis by the Rev. Beckwith. Themes include: "Service, Not Servitude", "Birthless, Deathless Eternality" and "Spiritual Loyalty." Each day is opened with a quote gleaned from spiritual classics East and West, and closes with a brief affirmation to work with that day. Beckwith's texts are strongly and conventionally New Thought in content and expression, and some of it would be bewildering to a reader not familiar with the tradition and its philosophy. The intent of the book is clearly to fire the reader up to do good each day, and to excel at personal development. Its purpose is strongly motivational, and as such it serves as an interesting example of book as spiritual technology. This is a book not simply meant to be read - it is meant to be used as inspiration for a life better lived. It prescribes techniques, thoughts and concepts to help the reader live each day in a more spiritual (and more happy) state of mind.
Beautifully packaged as a small, sturdy hardcover, it is interestingly free of the floral flourishes that distinguish the Hay House efforts in this same genre. In fact, the brown wash of the cover design would indicate to me that the book is intentionally aimed at a male as well as a female readership - a reasonable rarity when it comes to modern self-help books.