The best books are usually those that have inspired a personal attachment; a recommendation from a friend, a favourite passed on from family or a book searched for far and wide. Whatever the reason or the cause, books have a way of calling you to them, and these three books have been chosen by millions.

If the glaringly vibrant orange cover of The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson wasn’t enough to catch your eye, the bold title with its asterisk may have done the trick. What is it about this book that has everyone intrigued? Is it because it sold more than two-million copies in its first year of being on the shelves? Or that it has been translated into 65 languages? Or maybe because, in Manson’s own words, it’s “the self-help book for people who hate self-help. It’s as much a pat on the back as a slap in the face. It’s the first truly no-BS guide to flourishing in a crazy, crazy world — a truly counterintuitive approach to living a good life”.

In other words, it’s a book that doesn’t condemn you for not having everything together and doesn’t coddle you with unreliable half-truths. Instead, it’s a clear-cut unlearning of everything everyone else imposes on you, and an assertive guide into caring about the things that really matter ... to you and you alone, which is really what the “self” in “self-help” is all about. 

The Psychology Of Money by Morgan Housel has circulated countless feeds on social media in the past year, namely on TikTok, with more than 10-million views. It has become the face of financial and pop psychology reads and in the hands of CEOs and students alike, assimilating into reading routines across age groups and social statuses. In a hypersensitive economy with brittle living standards and in a country that is now greylisted and constantly toggling a state of emergency, the expression, “money makes the world go around” rings truer than before. Housel demystifies the “spreadsheet” elements of personal finance and rather looks at money through experiences. What propagates our relationship with money? Ego, pride, marketing, incentives and world views all subconsciously drive our money cycle and, inevitably, the way we perceive this form of exchange.

James Clear, the author of the astronomical best-seller, Atomic Habits, has taken the world by storm with his life-changing meditation manual that delivers on quantifiable change. In his opening chapter, Clear talks about a time in high school when he was hit in the face with a baseball bat, sending him into a coma and tethered to life support. His recovery period was a rehabilitation physically and emotionally; he had to come to terms with the possibility of stepping down from playing baseball. In the years that followed, he learnt that “the quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits’’ — and thus set the precedent for Atomic Habits.

Reading, much like exercise, stretches our brainpower and releases endorphins — our happy hormones; it becomes a quiet superpower with loud impacts. Whether you’re searching for true meaning and connecting with yourself, or in the midst of managing your finances with understanding, or building habits of fundamental change, these three books are your go-to confidants to set those transformations in motion.

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This article was sponsored by Exclusive Books.