Self-improvement books: why reading and how to choose.

4 min readMar 19, 2023

I’ve become an avid reader of self-improvement books. Before you roll your eyes and close this text, please note that I’m not trying to coach you or give you advice on how to resonate according to the frequency of success. I have no clue how to do that, otherwise, I’d be probably enjoying long-term vacations in Bali or some sort of paradise tropical island instead of my office. Thus, the kind of self-improvement books I’m reading is more regarding personal experiences and because they translate in words sort of previous experiences I have come through, they help me see the big picture of what worked and what didn’t, unveil potential causes of conflict what I could do to make better on my career. Thus, I prefer to think of these books like a friend venting my frustration in a pub.

How to choose great self-improvement books?

There are plenty of books on an academic career. Some are expensive, others not. So, how to choose them? I always think there is a bias that highly successful workaholics have the time to write a book on navigating their academic careers. Then suddenly, here I’m, not successful, a weak writer, and currently very far to become a workaholic writing myself a self-help post. I also think those who devote their time to writing a book should be interested in our money or status, then, there we are no status, no intention to get money and a confessed small (and fair) intention to get some appreciation. Don’t get me wrong, I loved to be praised and even if it is not the driver of my motivation, I can’t say that I’m writing this text without thinking about the potential praise I might eventually receive. Well, if I succeed in convincing you that I’m not motivated by fame or money, you might be confused about my real intentions. Well, so, feel free to think I’m cringing, but most of my motivation relies on the bad experience I have had during my career which I deeply wish to avoid others passing through. I don’t want to convince you that my comments are worthwhile because I know that for most readers the difficulties I faced are not similar to them, but for those that mirror some previous experience, I hope I have some tips on how to overcome such difficulties. So, risking sounding cringe for definitively: I really hope some of these words can help people after me.

But let’s state the core question again: how do I choose a self-improvement book that will help me? Even better, how to trust some of these books when we consider that there is a lot of rubbish produced to sell? Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer for you. The best I can do is share some content about some of the books I’ve read, and I hope I inspire you to get the full reading at your convenience. Below there is a list of books I’m suggesting at this moment. I hope I’ll soon fulfil each one of these books with a short note to better guide you in your journey.

Here is my list so far (in progress).

Bonus tips

Libgen & Zlibrary:

First, and the most ethically questionable, is to use Libgen and Zlibrary. Despite some people might think this suggestion is unethical, books are expensive, especially if live in a low/middle incoming country. IF those authors are truly interested on help you more than selling books, they must not be bothered by downloading their books from these platforms.

Moreover, I’m the team that I really love to have those books physically, so, the virtual ones are only temporary. Authors, you think I’ll like your book, so, don’t worry, I’ll buy one hard copy once I have finished the virtual one.

Don’t be ashamed of leaving the book in the middle

As with many lucrative products, there are plenty of gems and plenty of rubbish that you need to mine in your reading journey. Feel free to leave the books in the middle if you think the tips and experience are distant from your life. Sometimes the book is not just bad, but they are focused on specific people in mind, other academic fields, or other countries' reality. Forcing yourself to read those books might be a waste of time or, even worst, it might become a source of anxiety more than truly help you overcome your challenges. We all agree that we don’t need any other source of anxiety living these days, right?

Try to find writers in your field

There is no more demotivating than reading histories and scores that are not related to your academic field. There are mindsets that are quite peculiar for specific areas. For instance, in ecology and environmental sciences (my field), PhDs are frequently the first and corresponding authors of papers from their thesis. No questions about that. In other areas, there are plenty of differences that may cause disputes, but this is not quite common in my field. If I start reading lines and lines about this kind of interpersonal conflict, I might become paranoic if I cannot filter well the particularities from my field to others.