Forget the self-help nonsense, these classics will really change you for the better
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1
Be more successful at work
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Legacy – 15 Lessons in Leadership, What the all Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life (James Kerr)
There is much that sport can teach us about life – so where better to look for lessons than the most successful team of all time? Using New Zealand's all-conquering national rugby side as a case study, James Kerr explains how their methods can be replicated, no matter what job you do.
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2
Lose your worst habit
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Easy Way To Stop Smoking (Allen Carr)
The clue is in the title: 'stop' smoking, don't 'give it up'. Carr's highly successful method – criminally ignored by successive governments – is to shift the focus from why the habit is bad for you to why being a non-smoker is beneficial. And the best bit? He makes you realise you were never really addicted in the first place.
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3
Look better
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ABC of Men's Fashion (Hardy Amies)
A glossary of fashion terms and style tips for men, ABC of Men's Fashion is as indispensible now as it was in 1964, when the former Esquire columnist first published it. The late Amies, a one-time entrant in Vanity Fair's International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame, is the perfect sartorial guide for anyone who wants to look better.
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4
Master the outdoors
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Food For Free (Richard Mabey)
England's rolling fields and hedgerows are full of free food – didn't you know? Identify your safe berries from your deadly fungi with this classic guide to nature's bounty, and feel instantly closer to nature (not to mention impress the kids). It's the kind of knowledge every man feels he should have, in one of the simplest and most pleasurable to read guides ever published.
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5
Be better in bed
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How To Think More About Sex (Alain de Botton)
"Despite our best efforts to clean it of its peculiarities, sex will never be either simple or nice in the ways we might like it to be" – so begins de Botton's decidedly un-self helpy self-help book on the biggest topic of them all. This smart, accessible book will help you understand sex and sexual desire better, which can hardly be a bad thing.
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6
Understand people better
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert M. Pirsig)
Not actually about Buddhism or motorcycles, Pirsig's 1974 classic actually examines the difference between classical and romantic thought – and crucially, how they can be used together. The best-selling philisophy book of all time, this is an accessible and enjoyable introduction to thinking about thinking.
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7
Be better off
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Your Money or Your Life (Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez)
By posing some stark questions – how much money do you make? How do you make it? Where does it go? – this best-selling guide to personal finance teaches you how to make the most of what you earn and have more left over for the finer things in life.
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8
Be true to yourself
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Self Reliance (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
'Being an individual' is one of the grand narratives of the modern world, but the great American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson was preaching the value of independent thought long before anyone figured out they could use the idea to try and sell you things. And he really meant it, too. Self Reliance is his ode to following one's own instincts, and includes some of his best lines, including, famously: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."