Well, self-help books are always helpful, but it all depends on how the readers think about it.

People always say take the book as a reference only, and it's true. Why? This is because the author himself/herself, being a human, is just merely expressing his/her opinion to share with everyone. They're bound to make mistake, and their thinking is not absolute. That is why we have so many people debating over some issue that arises from different school of thoughts. I do admit that, however, there are some reading materials that are published for the reason of brainwashing the poor readers into accepting their thoughts. In the other word, brainwashing and forcing the ideas into someone's mind via an indirect, and also convincing way.

So, I call it worshiping, instead of taking it as a mere reference.

And that's the worst thing that could ever happen to readers. Some may simply replace their own humanity (beliefs, morality, etc) with this new one instead. Good thing, the thinking might help them to be a better human, but the bad is that he/she will just turns into a mere puppet/pawn, or I call it, slave to the mind of the author/authoress.

The good is only applicable if only it has good values, or only IF the readers apply it in a correct manner. To define my last sentence, what I'm about to say is that do it in a right way.


(the example given below is completely for illustrative purposes and not to flame anyone)


Say, a book may suggest you one kind of investing ideas. The reader captures the meaning, literally though, and goes for what the author has mentioned; he succeed and become rich, but at the expense of the poor people.


So much for being a rich person...Little did he know that the true meaning of being rich is not only in term of wealthiness, but also spiritually. Be kind, and that's the reason why so many rich people likes to do charity works to help the needy. For most of them, I believe the idea comes from the depth of the heart.

Oh my, didn't expect this post will goes so long. But overall as a conclusion, I think in most of the situations, readers will be the one who will ultimately distinguish between taking the material as a reference or worshiping it. The line that split the two words is really thin, and it's really easy to mix up between both of them.

After all, to accept it or not, it's all up to the readers, right?

Labels: Human's Nature, Thoughts