Which books should we avoid?

[Richard]

Some books can make matters worse and are best avoided. Any warnings of books that really didn't help at all?

[Nancy]

Reading books helped me through a "crisis of faith" because some writers are willing to speak the unspeakable...things that everyone thinks about in their darkest moment. They drag them out into the light of day and as Camus says.."crushing truths perish from being acknowledged."
Faith will not be totally annihilated, but it will look different on the "other side of the "crisis". And is also will be more resilient, more practical and a much more solid foundation to rebuild your life.

[Nancy]

Books that did not help...anything that promises to change your life just by reading it; that your mind, the way you think can change and in turn it will change everything in your life, in other words, mindless optimism.

This is from an article called "New Year’s Reading List: Books to Transform Your Sad Life" on a suggested 2014 reading list

"To worsen their condition of alienation and dejection, many Americans, in an attempt to feel better, read books that manipulatively sell mindless optimism and pathological hope. The cult of positive thinking turns out one hit after another, both secular—The Secret—and Christian—Joel Osteen’s prosperity gospel. The delusion that changing a life is as simple as believing it will change, and the poison that pretends God wants people who pray early and often to win the lottery, only raise expectations to unrealistic heights, and set desperate people up for a crushing fall with a crash landing."