Thinking of buying a copy of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus? Or sneaking a friend's copy of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway for a quick read?

You're not alone in reading self-help books, with sales figures revealing that self-help is one category of books which is experiencing a rise in sales in spite of people cutting back on personal spending.

Books offering advice to readers went up 14pc in sales last year, and so far this year there has been a 7pc increase.

In Britain people are buying even more self-help literature than we are, with a 25pc increase, compared to an average of 1pc increase in sales in other book categories.

We are looking for solace from between the pages of books in these tough times. But are we fooling ourselves, or do self-help books really offer support and solutions?

Businesswoman Donna Kennedy ran the Irish Entrepreneur Superconference which featured motivational speakers including Bob Proctor, author of the bestseller You Were Born Rich.

"Helen Keller once said, 'look towards the sunshine and your shadows fall behind you'. It was a remarkable attitude for a deaf and blind female author born in the 19th century.

"The thing is though, we haven't been doing it. With daily talk of recession, debt and bad news, we have become a nation immersed in fear and frustration. And we're scared to move almost in case we make things worse.

"But the fact is, if we don't take action to change a situation, it doesn't change. As long as we focus on what's wrong in our lives, nothing will change. So we must look at solutions.

"I think it makes sense to learn from people who have what we want. If they can do it in today's world, there is hope for everyone.

"All we need is a strategy to implement. And strategies are there to be found. The information is there, we just need to make sure to get it and to use it. It seems that in recent times, people have started to do that in this country. I think the rise in book sales is a good indication of that. We are no longer prepared to settle for misery. Instead we're investing in ourselves and learning from people who have what we want. And many people are starting with a book which a successful person has written."

Author Kate Kerrigan is married with two sons, and is a former women's magazine editor turned novelist

"I think self-help books are thriving because we all now feel entitled to a level of happiness in our lives. We feel entitled to be happy in our relationships, our work, and in our level of wealth. I believe this is largely unrealistic.

"I feel the middle classes have become so pampered that we are no longer satisfied with simply going to work to earn a living to feed our families. We want to feel completely fulfilled, and to be assured that we are getting the absolute maximum out of life.

"So, instead of just getting on with it, we waste many of the hours we could be spending having fun with our loved ones searching for the secret which, most of the time, offers little more than a bit of common sense peppered with standard spiritual principles that any educated Christian will have learned in school.

"They are the moral principles that we learned from our parents and childhood religions, and that we now ignore because they weren't packaged in a sexy way. And it all does really come down to packaging and spin.

"These books aren't telling us anything we don't already know, it's just that our lives have become so pampered that we now have the time (apparently) to indulge ourselves in endless self-examination in order to get on with the basically simple business of living.

"Do I read them? Of course I do. My 'bible' is John Gray's Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. I'm 10 years married this year so it must have worked!"

Kate Kerrigan's new novel, Ellis Island, is published this month.

Life coach Ellen Shilling is a NLP practitioner based in Blackrock

"We are all searching for motivation, guidance and inspiration in these recessionary times. That's exactly what a good self-help book offers.

Watch the news, listen to the radio or open a newspaper -- it is all doom and gloom. Pick any paper, take a red marker and cross out all the bad news. You'll actually have very few articles left.

"There are an amazing range of self-help books available to guide us in our search for enlightenment and solace. Some books will appeal more than others, depending on the individual.

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz was the first book from this category that I read. It is a fabulous little book that taught me so much and which I often recommend to my clients.

"The premise of the book is to live your life as best you can every day, based on four agreements or promises:

1 Be impeccable with your word,

2 Don't take anything personally,

3 Don't make assumptions,

4 Always do your best.

"It changed my life and gave me great awareness about my own behaviour and the behaviour of others. It was an empowering read."

Owen Fitzpatrick is a psychologist and author of the bestseller Not Enough Hours. He presents the RTE show Not Enough Hours.

"I believe that self-help books are becoming more and more popular because people are finding themselves in need of new ideas which can help them to handle the fast-paced changing world and all the challenges it is presenting to us.

"We are living in a society full of negativity with news continuously reminding us of the bleakness of the future and we are focusing on who to blame and why we feel bad. Self-help books, for the most part, offer us a way out of the blame game and a fresh perspective on how we can take control of our lives and create the kind of future we want. Many of them are full of the positive messages we need to hear just to emotionally cope.

"I have read a lot of self-help books and, although I found many of them full of bland suggestions presented over and over again, offering little more than positive thinking advice, there are some I found very valuable.

"I believe that the good ones are worth their weight in gold. Picking a favourite is impossible. but I'll mention Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. It's a story of a man spending time with his dying teacher who teaches him how to live while he dies. I was reminded of the fragile nature of life and the importance of making every moment count."

- Suzy Belton