'Shelf Help': Can literature be an alternative to the Self-Help book?

Today, Vintage have launched a campaign to promote fiction and non-fiction books as a source of inspiration for readers in 2014, rather than self-help books.

Asking readers to step away from the self-help category and towards some literary and serious non-fiction alternatives, Vintage have published a list of 12  titles that they hope will make people feel happier this year.

The list of 12 is said to include the 2013 publishing success Stoner by John Williams, Why be happy when you could be normal? by Jeanette Winterson, and Sebastian Faulks' Human Traces.

With a new book for every month, Vintage are hoping to make you feel better about your life with a little literary help throughout the year.

The curator of the list of 'Shelf Help' books, Alex Clark, has spoken about how 'books can improve our lives—not just as a sticking plaster to make us feel better, but as powerful spaces that can help us to expand the way we see and think about the world and ourselves.' (As quoted on The Bookseller - click here to read their article!)

This marketing campaign is definitely praise-worthy, in my opinion, as I believe we must promote literature and art as a learning platform from which we can learn how to reflect about our own life experiences.

But what do you think? Will you be seeking some Shelf Help this year?