Mind Your Manners

"Pitch out of your mind, at once, the idea that good manners are sissy. Good manners are an expression of your respect for your fellow man. They are a behavior code, worked out over the generations, to put into everyday practice the Golden Rule…treat other people the way you'd like them to treat you." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1958

Spending Time With Your Family

"Once upon a time a man brought home a gorgeous and expensive toy for his little girl and boy. "Look what Daddy got for you," he said. "You two are going to have fun playing with it after dinner. Isn't it nice?" "You bet," nodded the boy dutifully, and his sister exclaimed to show she liked it, too. Then the boy said, "We'll play with it tomorrow, Daddy. Tonight you promised we were going to have a game of Monopoly. All of us. Remember?" "Did I?" said the father. "Look, you'll have to give me a rain check, Bobby. You see something came up that's pretty important and I can't stay around for a game. Maybe tomorrow night." Tomorrow night there was another excuse and the night after that. And then one day the father noticed that the gorgeous and expensive toy had been cast aside like a discarded piece of junk." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1957

Making Your Home Life Happier

"I may commit many follies in life, Disraeli said, but I never intend to marry for love. And he didn't. He stayed single untel he was thirty-five, and then he proposed to a rich widow, a widow fifteen years his senior; a widow whose hair was white with the passing of fifty winters. Love? Oh, no. She knew he didn't love her. She knew he was marrying her for her money! So she made just one request: she give her the opportunity to study his character. And at the end of that time, she married him." 

Good Reading Rack Service, no date

How to Make Your Marriage Work

"Just like any job, where it takes cooperation to make the business tick, it takes the cooperation of husband and wife to make a good marriage. There are twelve areas where the most friction in life occurs. We will cover all of them. Then at the end of this booklet, there is a test which you and your mate can take together, marking up your own scores. If both of you can honestly make a score of 96 or more, you are doing and excellent job of making your marriage work." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1954

The Reason Why

"For 60 known centuries, this planet that we call Earth has been inhabited by human beings not much different from ourselves. Their desire to live has been just as strong as ours, yet down through the ages, most human beings have gone hungry, and many have always starved." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1955

Learning To Multiply And Divide

"Long years ago, in our valley, there was a little one-room schoolhouse. The smaller front desks were just right for little tots; and the last row could accommodate, very comfortably, a twelve-year-old boy, day-dreaming behind a propped-up geography book. With all eight grades in one room, there was, of course, a certain amount of confusion and distraction; and yet we did manage to acquire the rudiments of an education. We learned to spell and to read, and, as many had learned before, we learned to multiply and to divide." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1957

Watch Your Language

"Call a woman a kitten and she'll purr, call her a cat and she'll claw. Call a man a gay dog and he's your friend but beware of calling him a cur. Your best girl will swoon in your arms if you murmur: "When I look into your eyes, time stands still." But you'll remain a bachelor for life if you announce: "Your face could stop a clock." As human beings we are challenged constantly to express ourselves in the best way possible. Breathes there a man who hasn't sometimes felt he's put his great big foot in his mouth? This happens even to the best of us. Yet the man who wants to forge ahead in life, who wants to achieve the best possible relations with his fellow men, must know how to keep these blunders at a minimum." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1958

How To Write Better Letters

"There are times when a letter from you to a friend is expected - get it off promptly. The longer you delay, the less spontaneity your reply will show. Don't pass up opportunities. Jim Farley accumulated his remarkably wide circle of friends by constantly writing letters." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1956

How to Write Right!

"It's merely clear thinking accurately expressed in words that are understandable to the readers for whom they are intended. When a cub reporter hangs his hat on his desk and writes his first "story," it is likely to be tossed back to him by the editor. "Put it all in the first paragraph," the editor says. "In one or two short sentences tell who, what, when, where, why and how. Then give the details, briefly. Send your 'flowers' to the funeral parlor." 

A Help-Your-Self Booklet, 1959

Help Your Child Plan His Career

"You probably wonder sometimes, if you are like most parents, what your child will be when he grows up. You dream of your son, perhaps, as a brilliant surgeon or famous lawyer. Or you picture your young daughter as an artist, school teacher or nurse. Naturally you always think of them as being happy and successful in their future careers." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1957

Learn At Home And Like It

"This year over a million adult Americans will share in one of the greatest pleasures in life - studying something new and fascinating, or learning more about a subject that deeply interests them. They will sharpen their job skills or learn valuable new ones, master foreign languages or become absorbed in new hobbies, learn to play musical instruments or increase their knowledge of world affairs. The amazing part of all this is that most of these Americans will gain their knowledge right in the comfort of their own living rooms. For they have discovered - and explored - the limitless opportunities for learning at home." 

Birk & Co. Inc., 1954

The Three Why's

"Do you know what's going to become of you when you get out of high school? If you don't you'd better start thinking about it. Of course, maybe you have thought about it. Maybe you're planning to go to college. But if that's the case, it only changes the question a little: Do you know what'a going to become of you when you get out of college? By this time you're probably thinking: "So what?" The anser to that is this: No matter what you plan to do when you get out of high school or college, you're probably going to need more mathematics." 

The National Research Bureau Inc., no date

Widen Your Horizons

"One criticism long aimed at the average American by social scientists is that too many of us live the same humdrum kind of lives, think the same commonplace kind of thoughts, conform to the same prosaic kind of patterns and strive for the same kind of narrow goals in life. They are concerned over our growing of individuality and the lack of understanding by Americans generally of the great cultural opportunities open to each of us." 

A Help-Your-Self Booklet, 1958

There's Always Time For Courtesy

"If you are unfailingly courteous, you are more likely to get ahead on your job; you will enjoy your work more; you will have better manners; your children will have better manners by imitating you; you will have less fatigue; you will keep your home life happy; and you will have more friends, more satisfaction, more of everything you wish. "Life," said Ralph Waldo Emerson, "is not so short but that there is always time for courtesy." Dale Carnegie" 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1956

Are You Living Sensibly?

"When your alarm clock suddenly clamors in the morning, you shut if off and turn over for another ten or twenty minutes of sleep…You get out of bed, dress quickly, gulp a cup of coffee, dash off to work, and just about make it in time…At your job you dawdle, let work pile up, then hustle to get it all done by the end of the day...You hurry home after work, and then in the evening you wonder why you always feel so bushed and can't seem to relax." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1957

Do You Pass The Model Test

"Few of our most glamorous models can boast of perfect features and some of them are downright "plain" when judged by classic standards. But they all know how to make the most of their natural gifts. You can be "model material," too, if you'll take the time to be your loveliest." 

The H.W. Gossard Co., no date

How To Look Your Best

"Do you want to impress people with the way you look? Who doesn't! And you can - by cultivating a well-groomed look from head to toe. It only needs daily attention to simple things - health, cleanliness, neatness, good posture, and appropriate - not expensive - clothes. Both men and women have found that a well-groomed look can do a lot toward success and happiness in life. Isn't it worth a little effort? Let's take stock. Maybe you feel that you don't need to check up on yourself. Try it anyway. You never know where you'll find a useful idea or helpful thought." 

Stevens Publications, 1955

Freedom From Fear

"Fear is everywhere. It is all-pervasive. Slowly, deliberately, it seeps into our physical, emotional and spiritual fibers. To paraphrase Emerson, fear is a circle whose circumference is everywhere, and whose center is nowhere. Fear is a force; fear is an illness. It can alter the destiny of those who, by concession to this fear, distort their behavior in response to it. It can play havoc with careers, social attainments, the relationship between husband and wife, and the relationship between parent and child, and between employer and employee." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1956

Enjoying Mental Health

"No neat line separates the mentally healthy from the mentally sick. Nor is it possible to give a satisfactory answer as to why one person apparently is able to take stress and strain…while another becomes mentally sick. We do know, however, that mental sickness is our nation's Number One health problem today. Most people don't realize it. But the chance that a person need treatment because of severe mental illness in the course of a lifetime is one in tine."

 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1959

Happiness Doesn't Come In Pills

"Not long ago a writer friend of mine was asked by a magazine to investigate these "mood" or "happiness" pills that are so popular nowadays. He soon came back with word that in the past 12 months Americans have spent more than 100 million dollars on these tranquilizers, or emotional aspirin." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1957

Just In Case You Think You're Normal

"He looked up at the doctor with sad eyes. He was very depressed. "What you need," said the doctor, "is some good entertainment to cheer you up. Why don't you go to the Music Hall tonight? There's a wonderful clown performing there. He'll cheer you up for certain." "But, Doctor," replied the patient sadly, "I'm the clown." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1955

You And The Weather

"Something like this probably happens to you at one time or another: One morning, from the moment you wake up, you're in a foul mood. You cut yourself while shaving. You rip off a button while putting on your shirt. The children get on your nerves and your wife seems irritable. When your customary three-minute eggs turn out to be much too soft, you hit the ceiling - and spill your coffee. You dash out, miss your bus, grab another, get into a hassle with the bus driver, and suddenly remember you've forgotten that package you were supposed to bring to work. All day long on your job everything seems to go wrong. Maybe you stop to wonder - who or what's responsible for your ill humor and the chain of mishaps? Well, blame it on the weather and you're apt to be right!" 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1956

Make Your Daydreams Come True

"If you were offered three wishes right now that could and would be fulfilled through sheer magic by a genie, what would they be? Would they be wishes for success…money…travel…new clothes…a new car…a home…or for the young in heart to marry a handsom prince or a beautiful princess? All these things: your success in life, your bank account, a beautiful car, a home to be proud of, a wonderful mate, are proportional to your dreams - your daydreams!" 

A Help-Your-Self Booklet, MCMLVIX

Guide To Mental Health

"When you talk about your peace of mind, or happiness, or being "satisfied with the way things are going," you're referring to mental health. It has to do with the way you get along mentally in everyday life - on your job, at home, in your social life and in your community. They way you harmonize your abilities, ambitions, feelings and conscience in order to meet life's demands as you face them. All this determines your mental and emotional stability. If you're mentally healthy you're also a good friend, good worker, good husband or wife, good parent and good citizen." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1956

Think Tall To Be Tall

"The man who wakes up and finds himself a success has to wake up to do it. Certainly we can never go any higher than the ceiling of our own thoughts. To be any bigger than we think we can be is impossible. But we can lift the ceiling." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1946

How You Can Have More Ideas

"Do you ever wonder where clever new ideas come from? Who are the persons who think them up? How do they do it? Are they "geniuses," or do have they mastered certain rules and principles to guide them along the right paths in their creative thinking?" 

A Help-Your-Self Booklet, 1959

Want A Better Memory?

"Desire is a miracle force. When you really WANT to remember you can. And a good memory is mighty helpful in a lot of ways. Likely you have had the embarrassing experience of meeting a person and promptly forgetting his name or, worse yet, failing to recognize him the next time you saw him. Such experiences are preventable. Your memory can be trained to remember names and faces so that you will enjoy improved relationships with other people." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1954

Take A Good Look At Yourself

"What are your goals in life: romance, marriage, happiness, peace, security? Is the going a bit on the rough side with more than a fair share of disappointments? Are your achievements less than what you had expected? Would you like to discover a simple way to further your aims and ambitions and make your progress smoother, safer, surer? It's easy. All you have to do is take a good look at your personal attitudes. For your personal attitudes can create obstacles that make your way harder and less satisfactory - or they can speed you along to success and fulfillment of your dreams." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1958

Humor Makes Your Human

"Just hearing a good hearty laugh sometimes completely changes a person's frame of mind. Laughter is said to be infectious. A good demonstration of this took place on a TV program a year or so ago. It was a comedy show in which studio contestants were paid so much for every second they could keep from laughing while a panel of professional comedians told jokes, made funny faces, and tried everything else they could think of to break the contestants down. One poker-faced contestant steadily withstood the efforts of several hard-working comedians, but broke down immediately when the fourth started his routine. All the comedian did was laugh out loud. Within seconds, the contestant was laughing heartily in spite of himself." 

A Help-Your-Self Booklet, 1960

Watch Your Boiling Point

"It was the third inning of a crucial ball game late in the 1958 season. At bat Ted Williams, the Boston Red Sox slugger, watched a pitched ball go by him. "Strike!" called the umpire. Williams, defending his American League batting crown, had struck out. In a fit of furry, the tempestuous Ted hurled his bat into the box seats, where it bounced of a fan's head and sent her to a hospital. After his tantrum was over, the ballplayer was penitent. "I feel terrible," he said. "I was mad at myself because I really wanted a base hit." Not all of us have runaway tempers like Ted Williams. But everyone blows his stack now and then. If you have an average temperament, you probably get angry about six times a week." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1959

The Most For Our Money

"We Americans get the most for our money of any people on earth. As consumers we are granted a number of privileges by this free enterprise economy of ours, but in my opinion two stand out above all others. One is our freedom to choose from among a very real abundance of products; the other is that we have a reasonable expectation of receiving more for our money." 

Good Reading Rack Service, 1956