While presenting these recommendations, I’ve gotten a lot of responses about non-literary Kindle books. Admittedly, I’ve questioned throwing anything like that up here, but I figure that since people are sending me links it’s likely that at least some of you would be interested! Today, we have some self-help style books that claim to offer advise on just generally feeling better through basic, cheap methods. Now, unless we’re talking about a bear who just looooves picnic baskets, my experiences with things like yogis are limited at best. In order to bring the best input possible, I consulted somebody who knows a bit more. Here’s what we came up with.
How To Meditate: A Step-by Step Guide to the Art and Science of Meditation
If you’re interested in this sort of thing, you can’t really go wrong with an informative title that costs as little as this. The attraction of this particular title stems from the treatment. It is informative without preaching or attempting to do much in the way of selling readers on a personal philosophy. It’s also quite focused, which seems unusual for such a book. Novak presents easily understood instructions on body positioning, breathing patterns, and all that fun stuff, all with accompanying illustration for those who might need it (though these illustrations don’t look quite as good on the Kindle as on paper). Even if you don’t buy into the underlying philosophy, I think it’s probably useful as a general relaxation technique, and who couldn’t use something like that these days?
The Kindle Edition is $4.00
Yoga as Medicine: The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing
There is no shortage when it comes to yoga books. Most of them toss out a variety of poses, name them, and leave it at that. Probably useful for some people, but a more instructive approach is nice. This one instructs and accounts for a variety of different fitness levels. Great for anybody who doesn’t know what they’re doing so far. The author also spends a lot of time on, as the title implies, medical applications of yoga. While some of the claims seem a little stretched to me personally, I’m don’t feel that my background is sufficient to judge medical matters. If that’s your thing, check it out and maybe learn something. Even if you don’t, it’s easy to take this as a low-impact fitness guide that just about anybody can handle in comfort. The portability of the Kindle is a plus compared to the often-bulky yoga books that many people will be used to as well.
The Kindle Edition is $15.99
the Moment: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time
It’s no secret that overeating is a big deal for a lot of people. It’s a lot easier to get into bad habits than it is to break them. This book seems to have a somewhat different approach than the usual Diet + Willpower equation that fails people so regularly. The author promotes awareness of the situations that cause you to eat, thinking about what brings on cravings, and knowing how to avoid things like habitual or depressed eating. Admittedly, some of the advice is a bit intuitive and seems weird to have to be elaborated, but bringing this sort of thing out into the open might help you out if you’ve had to deal with failed diets a time or two in the past or just want to improve on some bad habits.
The Kindle Edition is $9.99