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Are you tired of self-help books and power of positive thinking schemes that clutter the publishing scene? If you can't beat 'em, write like 'em.

The Wall Street Journal has a whole article about the fine art of fake self-help books. It just ran an essay about Stephen Potter, the author of a surreal set of phony self-help manuals that are still funny fifty years later. Check it out:

"The tone of Potter's books combines the amiability of P.G. Wodehouse with the humorous malice of Evelyn Waugh. Behind them is the Hobbesian presupposition that man lives in a natural state of war. Well, perhaps not all men -- only those of us who are not dazzlingly handsome, impressively athletic, widely learned and deeply cultured, always at ease in the world."

If you want to read more about the fine art of fake self-help, our special guest Ed Park had lots to say on the subject. Check out his interview, How To Write Books-Inside-of-Book to find out how he dreamed up an entire library of imaginary business books in his novel, Personal Days.

Thanks to Sarah Weinman for the link.