2008 Woodie Awards
It's perfectly OK to be imperfect
Tina Korbe
Issue date: 4/14/08 Section: Opinion
If there were a rehabilitation program for self-help book addicts, I would be the first to enroll - or maybe second, after my dad. I probably devour two advice books for every movie I manage to catch in the theater. But my dad's devotion to the realm of self-help rivals Santa Claus' devotion to sleigh-delivered dreams. My dad could write the book on "How to Read Self-Help Books."
Check out my dad's nightstand: classic titles, such as "The Power of Positive Thinking" or "How to Win Friends and Influence People," cozy up to relatively recent releases, like "The Millionaire Next Door" or "The Powermind System."
Listen to my dad's conversations: he quotes John Wooden and John Maxwell at least as often as he quotes "Die Hard" and "Dumb and Dumber." (And go ahead and make the assumption. He quotes those movies as often as the average male.)
Flip through any one of my dad's custom-made notebooks: quotes are interspersed with affirmations and ideas to improve his golf game. The evidence is incontrovertible. Self-help books are to my dad what "Halo 3" is to my boyfriend. He couldn't make it through a day without them.
I would say, then, that it's not my fault I impulsively buy and compulsively read books like "The Dorm Room Diet" or "Be Happy Without Being Perfect," because I, after all, have a genetic predisposition. But, unfortunately, I completely buy into the standard self-help cliché that "I am responsible for myself," so I necessarily have to believe that I read self-help books because I choose to read them.
Genes can't serve as my scapegoat because nothing can. I might try to pass off my humiliating habit by calling it an "addiction" but I can't even get by with that because there isn't a rehabilitation program for people who "every day, in every way, want to get better and better."
Honestly, I'm surprised there isn't such a program. There are programs for nearly everything else. And doctors these days are very obliging about diagnosing disorders. But, then again, a rehab program is only an exploded self-help book, an American blow-dryer plugged into a European socket.
Check out my dad's nightstand: classic titles, such as "The Power of Positive Thinking" or "How to Win Friends and Influence People," cozy up to relatively recent releases, like "The Millionaire Next Door" or "The Powermind System."
Listen to my dad's conversations: he quotes John Wooden and John Maxwell at least as often as he quotes "Die Hard" and "Dumb and Dumber." (And go ahead and make the assumption. He quotes those movies as often as the average male.)
Flip through any one of my dad's custom-made notebooks: quotes are interspersed with affirmations and ideas to improve his golf game. The evidence is incontrovertible. Self-help books are to my dad what "Halo 3" is to my boyfriend. He couldn't make it through a day without them.
I would say, then, that it's not my fault I impulsively buy and compulsively read books like "The Dorm Room Diet" or "Be Happy Without Being Perfect," because I, after all, have a genetic predisposition. But, unfortunately, I completely buy into the standard self-help cliché that "I am responsible for myself," so I necessarily have to believe that I read self-help books because I choose to read them.
Genes can't serve as my scapegoat because nothing can. I might try to pass off my humiliating habit by calling it an "addiction" but I can't even get by with that because there isn't a rehabilitation program for people who "every day, in every way, want to get better and better."
Honestly, I'm surprised there isn't such a program. There are programs for nearly everything else. And doctors these days are very obliging about diagnosing disorders. But, then again, a rehab program is only an exploded self-help book, an American blow-dryer plugged into a European socket.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Deena
posted 4/14/08 @ 9:47 AM CST
There is a rehab center or two on campus for people like you, actually. Some call it a 'library.' I hear it's filled with these bound volumes of knowledge. (Continued…)
Glad I'm not Korbe
posted 4/18/08 @ 2:39 PM CST
What's most pathetic about this article is that the poor authoress feels that her time is better spent reading books like Shopaholic. No wonder we have an illiterate society. (Continued…)
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