"How to Be Your Own Best Friend"
by Paul A. Hauck
Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Friend-Overcoming-Common-Problems/dp/0859695670/
Reading history and reviews
Finished in 2008
I'm really getting through my old books now! I've had this one since 2004, at least according to the receipt that's still tucked inside the front cover. I remember seeing this book at a friend's house earlier that year and feeling like being my own best friend was something I would like to learn how to be. (What sealed it for me is the picture on the cover, which is wonderful cartoon drawing of an elephant spraying water on her own back from her trunk.)
I enjoyed reading this book for a few reasons. A lot of the advice seems good - of course, it's following it that's the difficult part but no book can ever do that for you - but I also enjoyed the author's style, which wasn't slick but down-to-earth, just the right side of patronising almost. I also enjoyed his various anecdotes which are taken from his own experience and which he uses to illustrate how some of the advice is applied in practice.
At the core of it all it's pretty simple I suppose: you have to learn to like yourself, even when you might feel like something you've done is bad. There's more to it of course, like learning to control your emotions and being assertive, and there is advice on these things too. It's quite a short book and I think that I will try to give it a second read sometime in the near future.