Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill

Suggested by Anna. At first glance, this likely just looks like a dusty old self-help book, and with the pervasive thinking that newer is always better and that we live in unique times, one might just think that surely this can't be worthy of one's time. Maybe that impulse is correct, but disregarding that impulse (or never having it in the first place) and looking a bit closer, one might find it interesting to have stumbled upon a book which is primarily available together with a commentary - both in written and in audiobook format. Why is that, one might wonder, while feeling enticed to read it just because of this revelation. According to posts on forums the audiobook's commentary doesn't improve the listening experience and many people seem to think the same way about the text - that's it's better as-is, and that one might read the commentary later if one wishes instead of more or less forced to as it's intertwined with the original text. So, the recommendation is to read the original text and see what we make of it.

Apart from this obvious drama (how better to promote a book than to ban it, or at least tell you that you need modern explaining to read it?) the book seems to be interesting because it seems to be a part of the bootstrapping era for self-help books directed at a wide audience. Like Dale Carnegie's books, perhaps. Such classics are always fun and interesting to read, as they offer glimpses of how a genre for the reading public is born.

Goodreads sells the book as follows:
``Following the success of his 1937 landmark bestseller, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill wrote Outwitting the Devil, an exposé on the methods the Devil uses to ensnare and control the minds of human beings. Exploring the innermost depths of the psychology of motivation to understand why so many individuals, including himself, cannot find the initiative and courage they need to consistently implement the philosophy of individual achievement, Hill went so far as to interview the Devil himself. The resulting confession from the Devil made this book so controversial as to remain unpublished for over 70 years. Now it is your turn to break the Devil's code and free yourself from the hidden methods of control that lead to ruin.

In this reproduction of the complete text of Hill's original manuscript is laid out the exact nature of the power by which the Devil disarms human beings with fear, procrastination, anger, and jealousy so that they do not reach their full potential. This is the same power that paralyzed millions of individuals with fear and despondency during the Great Depression and continues to hold people back from their dreams. Complacency and mediocrity are not the root issue; they are symptoms of deeper ills that we are conditioned by society to accept. But you must open your mind to acquire knowledge and consider facts that might not harmonize with your personal beliefs in order to access a greater truth that will, as Hill said in his original preface, "bring harmony out of chaos in this age of frustration and fear."
``

This is a very short book - at least for this book club -, hence the quite quick re-meet. The paperback version of this book, published by Adultbrain Publishing (ISBN:9781069049544), is 178 pages while the audiobook, also published by Adultbrain Publishing (ISBN:9798868702471), is five hours and twenty one minutes.