The Little Book of Self Help Quotes by K. N. Ormond

Unattributed Quotes in Book Riddled with Errors

This book compiles 365 days’ worth of self-help quotes ranging from happiness to communication to success. With each quote, the author gives a line or two which is meant to assist you to think about the quote.

The quotes themselves range from inspiring to not so inspiring. The short line or two that the author gives I think is revelatory of what the author personally thinks of the quote; many of these quotes could be taken in multiple ways, and you could actually do a deep dive on many of them that aren’t really reflected in what the author states. Some of these quotes did sound familiar, so I wondered who actually said the quotes. Unfortunately, the author does not give any sources for all these words of wisdom. I looked up a handful, and several were from Helen Keller, at least one was from Dr. Wayne Dwyer, and another was from a business guru from the last century named Napoleon Hill. I find myself wondering at the legality of this book where such a large part is quotes from others that are unattributed. Is it plagiarism? On another unfortunate note, the book had many issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage. Periods were often missing at the end of sentences, both within the quotes and the author’s write up. For the quotes themselves, the author used both single quotes and double quotes; no consistency. Commas were not used appropriately.

I think this book needed a short introduction. Perhaps the author could have shared his or her personal relationship to these quotes (has the author’s life been changed by them?), what the author hopes the reader will gain from it, basic instructions how to work with the quotes as well as perhaps ways to dive deeper if you want to. I think the need for basic instructions on an introductory page is crucial for this book because the instructions to “record your answer” were repetitive and unnecessary in the beginning and then missing at the end (again, consistency issues). I think that the simple instruction of record your answer doesn’t add much value for the reader. It might have been better to suggest in an introductory section to keep a journal of your thoughts about these quotes: looking back, looking forward, applying to your personal life or job, etc. The author could have set the framework for interaction with these quotes. I also thought that each quote needed more than a line or two to help draw the reader to gain inspiration. The author could have easily written a couple of paragraphs about each quote. She or he could have gotten personal, saying what this quote has meant in his or her life. Or he or she could have suggested a surface interaction with the quote and then a deeper dive into what the quote means or could mean in a person’s life.