Top Hacker News Book Recommendations in Self-Help (all time)

All Time Past 6 Months

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Harold S. Kushner

4.6 on Amazon

3 HN comments

High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way

Brendon Burchard and Hay House

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting

Lisa Genova

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.

Brené Brown

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life

Emily Nagoski Ph.D.

4.8 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Alcoholics Anonymous: The Big Book

Anonymous

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

Gary Wilson, Noah Church, et al.

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive: 10th Anniversary Edition

Daniel J. Siegel and Mary Hartzell

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

The Year of Magical Thinking

Joan Didion

4.5 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Surrounded by Idiots

Thomas Erikson

4.5 on Amazon

3 HN comments

The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem

Dr. Nathaniel Branden and Macmillan Audio

4.6 on Amazon

2 HN comments

13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do: Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears, and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success

Amy Morin

4.6 on Amazon

2 HN comments

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich

Norman Ohler and Shaun Whiteside

4.7 on Amazon

2 HN comments

Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks

Barry McDonagh

4.6 on Amazon

2 HN comments

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People

Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald

4.5 on Amazon

2 HN comments

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darnkavionFeb 4, 2019

13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do by Amy Morin

kragenonFeb 28, 2021

I don't think it's that psychology books in general don't sell well. The nonfiction bestsellers list always has a lot of psychology books in it†! But when it was "POET," it got shelved in the psychology section of bookstores. So, if you went into a bookstore looking for help coping with your childhood traumas or marriage problem, you might run across this book about how industrial products and software were badly designed, and how to design them better, using new findings from cognitive psychology. But if you went into the bookstore to learn about how to design industrial products or software, you'd end up in the "design" or "software" section, so you wouldn't find it.

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† Right now Amazon's nonfiction bestseller list https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Nonfiction/... has "The Psychopath" at #1, "Mindset" at #2, "Master Your Emotions" at #18, "The 7 Habits" at #21, "Girl, Stop Apologizing" at #28, "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do" at #31, "The Declutter Challenge" at #34, and "Thinking, Fast and Slow" at #50, plus a number of gray-area books; the New York Times has "Think Again" at #11. I think it's fair to say that psychology books sell a buttload.

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