From Reading Chicken Soup For The Soul, Understanding Self-Help Books and Changing Perspectives

A true account

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

When I was growing up, I came across this tiny book called — Chicken Soup For The Soul. And I was instantly attracted towards it. I don't remember the contents, but it helped me in that phase of my life. It's a self-help book.

And I forgot about them. I found them again when I was roaming around in the nearest Crosswords store (A famous in-person bookstore now shutting down). But there were many versions of Chicken Soup — one for mothers, fathers, sons, struggles, job seekers, and anything you can think about.

Wow, they went out and doubled down too hard to capitalize on their Chicken Soup brand. And it worked. They have sold multi-millions copies of their books. And it's still getting sold. And now it's a factory system of getting new books every year.

Does It Help?

Self-help books have a bad reputation. Many people complain that they contain generic advice like — don't give up, be persistent, it will all work out and so on.

Their argument has some merit, as is evident from the gazillion versions of the Chicken Soup series. But I see things from the reader's point of view. Yes, the Chicken Soup series is cheesy, it's…