Unique Books That Are Actually Helpful
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Everyone needs a little bit of help sometimes. Not all days are good, some days are harder than others while some days pass by in a breeze. Now I have spent many a day trying to understand why is it so, what am I doing wrong on these days? Or are certain days of the week more cursed than the rest?
It came to a point where I started keeping track of the days where things went wrong trying to figure out a pattern so that I could break this curse and have an eternity of good days, sadly this didn’t happen. Then I thought, hey maybe I could pick my bad days? Maybe if I decide this particular day of the week is going to be bad then I’ll for certain know which day is good? I called it the voluntary placebo.
It didn’t work. I just ended up having a string of bad days. In fact, I was so hung up on this idea that let’s just call it a bad year.
Then I figured out, it wasn’t the day or week or the positioning of the planets; it was me. I had things to deal with on my own, within myself. Many things led to this discovery, most of the time I was on my own, but I wasn’t alone.
I was lost within pages, but they guided me the most. Trust me when I say the words within these books helped me far more than any words ever did. I wouldn’t call them self-help books in the traditional sense; they don’t have a 12-step plan that leads you to happiness, but they helped me, and I hope they can help you too.
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Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh
Genre: Humor
Subject: An authors adventures in surviving life
Length: 384 pages
Rating: 4.2/5 on Goodreads
What’s in it?
The book itself is simplistic, there is no grand story or awe-inspiring battles. It’s simple, and that’s what makes it stand apart. It’s basically about the author and her life and everything in it.
You get to go through her life right alongside her and learn so much from it.
There’s love, laughter, and life. You get to chase gooses, cry over a morsel of food, obsess over cake and just forget your own problems for a minute. The art alone makes this book worth the read.
Colorful. If I were to describe this book in a single word, I’d say colorful, it’s so vibrant and bright even though not all the topics in it are, yet it leaves you feeling hopeful that it’s ok everything will eventually fall into place.
Why would I recommend it?
This book empties your mind. It empties you of everything, if only for a moment and gives you back so much. It gives you a friend, someone who talks to you through the pages and let’s you know that it is ok to not be ok. That you don’t have to be perfect all the time.
If you have ever needed a breather or someone inside your head with zero judgements, this book is the one for you. It’s an ordinary person with ordinary problems just like us, someone who bumbled through life and let us become a part of it.
At any time, this book is everything I need and more.
More reasons to read it!
- “The absurdity of working so hard to continue doing something you don’t like can be overwhelming.”
― Allie Brosh, Hyperbole and a Half
- “And that’s the most frustrating thing about depression. It isn’t always something you can fight back against with hope. It isn’t even something – it’s nothing. And you can’t combat nothing.”
― Allie Brosh, Hyperbole and a Half
- “On a fundamental level, I am someone who would throw sand at children.”
― Allie Brosh, Hyperbole and a Half
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What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
Genre: Comics, Humor
Subject: An author’s experiments in death, destruction and general excitement
Length: 320 pages
Rating: 4.1/5 on Goodreads
What’s in it?
A whole lot of madness and fun. Ever wanted to know what would happen if the Earth stopped spinning? This book will tell you exactly what happens. All the questions, the absurd and non-absurd are answered within this book in a way that we’d actually understand.
It’s a journey of a man, a website, and a curious audience. Also, there are comics, what more could you need?
If you want to feel a tad bit scientific without knowing science or just want to know if you can swim in radioactive water,
then this my friend is what you were looking for.
Why would I recommend it?
In a world where nothing makes sense, this book works like an anchor, tethering you to reality. I had honestly bought it for the comics, and the dinosaur on the cover. It had seemed like a unique and fun read at the time, but I had no idea that I’d be falling in love with it or feel so clear headed because of it.
The first and foremost reason why I love this book is because it shows that there is a solution for everything, an answer to every problem. No matter how difficult the task seems if we break it down to its core, there is a solution; we just need to be creative about it.
It’s not just the science or the math, it’s about the approach and the level of dedication behind that approach.
Every time I feel overwhelmed, I just stop and use this as a guiding point that there is solution, I am just not being absurd enough about it.
More reasons to read it!
- “There’s no material safety data sheet for astatine. If there were, it would just be the word “NO” scrawled over and over in charred blood.”
― Randall Munroe, What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
- “Your plane would fly pretty well, except it would be on fire the whole time, and then it would stop flying, and then stop being a plane.”
― Randall Munroe, What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
- “Remember: I am a cartoonist. If you follow my advice on safety around nuclear materials, you probably deserve whatever happens to you.”
― Randall Munroe, What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
3. Cosmos Book by Carl Sagan
Genre: Popular science
Subject: A whole universe sprinkled in stardust
Length: 396 pages
Rating: 4.4/5 on Goodreads
What’s in it?
Cosmos was Carl Sagan’s unique way of making us a part of this universe. It started as a series and then was turned into a book. Space is unreachable for so many of us, but Cosmos is a tiny window to space. It gives us an honest look to what has led us so far.
Between these pages you can see the rise and fall of civilizations, the birth and death of stars and mankind’s journey amongst the stars. Within few words you get to travel galaxies. You get to see how a single idea can branch out to infinite possibilities. How a simple question leads you to the discovery of the universe.
Why would I recommend it?
Simple things become exceedingly complicated in life; Cosmos teaches you to see beyond that. I love space, so much so that I’d love to wander off on Mars. This book was a gold mine for me. It’s a compilation of each Cosmos episode into bite sized chapters and each chapter is filled to the brim with so much information and such simple information, truly you get to be the part of an awe-inspiring journey.
Life seems too heavy sometimes, we get so lost within our problems that we rarely see past them, but Cosmos plunges you into the ever-expanding universe and shakes up your very core. By the time you’re done reading you feel so small surrounded by planets older than time and the echoes of an ancient civilization. Cosmos makes us understand that even though we are one tiny being, it’s upon our shoulders that this civilization was built and that we are the pioneers of discovery and exploration. We are our own hope.
- “Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”
- “We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.”
- “Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.”
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For me each book represents a journey; I found in their pages a whole universe and more. For me most self-help books seemed unachievable as though I could never incorporate within my life what was being said within them, and that’s ok, not everyone thinks the same way or needs the same thing.
I had needed these books and what was being said within them, they were the missing puzzle pieces that I had needed at that point, and I hope they turn out to be the missing puzzle piece that someone else needs too.
Thank you for reading! Also, I sure do love support and coffees! 💜
