With very few exceptions, I find contemporary self-improvement books the perfect example of the “this book could have been a blog post could have been a tweet could have been left unsaid” chain.<p>A core of truth, but terribly written. Zero imagination, neither wisdom nor joy. What they lack in depth they make up for with contrived examples.<p>While authors like Hesse, Kafka, Tolkien, Goethe, Dickens, Fry, and Wilde have given me so much more.<p>Sometimes it’s a sentence. Sometimes the mood of a chapter. Maybe a casual observation made by a side character or a short poem that carries the weight of many a novel.<p>Never directly relating to my work, but deep insights in to humanity transcend everything.<p>And if there’s nothing you find applicable, at least you’re left with beautiful language that is worth indulging in for its own sake.<p>(A euro-centric list, antiquated maybe. But timeless. Naturally, every period and culture has gifted us with comparable works.)