Self-help and advice books can be further sub-divided into many categories. The bestsellers amongst these categories are probably the books that offer help on relationships and the ones that offer dieting advice. Some of the bestselling relationship advice books of the past have been “Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars” and its sequels and “The Rules”. A recent bestseller in this category has been “He’s Just Not That Into You”. The dieting advice bestsellers have included “Atkins for Life” and recently “The South Beach Diet”.

Spiritual advice books and books on personality development have also done very well on bestseller lists in the pasts. Perhaps the most successful of these has been “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey which spawned not just sequels but an entire business franchise. Books by authors like Deepak Chopra also frequently make it to the top of these lists.

Other sub-genres that regularly become bestsellers are those that offer advice on parenting (perhaps the best known and largest selling of these is Dr. Benjamin Spocks’s book which actually appears on the list of top 10 bestsellers of all time), on fashion, on managing personal finances and even on cooking.

The advice books bestseller list thus reads like a summary of the issues that occupy the minds of American readers at any point of time. It is therefore more than just a list but in fact a mirror to our society.