Student life and guidance
Ellie Clifford
88
World Book Day is an annual charity event, designed to help encourage reading as well as remove barriers to this, i.e. due to cost. This is particularly relevant since 2nd–6th March is also National Student Money Week. You can check out our previous blog post on this here.
2026 is also the National Year of Reading, so this year, in particular, we would love to encourage you to read some non-course related material whenever you have the time to. To assist with this, we have compiled a list of self-help and wellbeing books as recommended by our very own KMMS staff!
Happy Mind Happy Life: 10 Simple Ways to Feel Great Every Day by Dr Rangan Chatterjee
Recommended by Stephanie Green, Head of Operations.
“He’s a GP and looks at wellbeing and health really holistically, has a great podcast (Feel Better, Live More) and is just brilliant!”
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Dr Julie Smith
Recommended by Harri Burton, Course Assistant.
“More of a lengthy science based read. I found it very helpful, as there’s also worksheets that can be referred back to for ‘poopy brain days’ (my words).”
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Recommended by Phil Naylor, Student Support Officer.
“Very clear and intuitive small (‘atomic’) daily tweaks that are remarkably useful and not as overwhelming to implement as you might fear!”
Mindfulness. A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Danny Penman
Recommended by the Student Life and Guidance team.
“This book helps to provide some simple yet powerful practices to apply to your day-to-day life to help break the cycle of anxiety, stress, unhappiness and exhaustion.”
We have a copy of this book in the SLG room, which you can borrow during your breaks in the Pears building.
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Recommended by Kathy Meresz, Curriculum Coordinator.
“I can recommend this book so highly, not just for students, but really everyone. Basically it operates on the premise that life is short. Assuming we live to be eighty (if we are very lucky) then we have about four thousand weeks. The book explores how to make the most of it. It’s brutally honest and realistic and I found it to be a really refreshing way to look at time management.”
Recommended by Phil Naylor, Student Support Officer.
“An anti-productivity book with the message that we can’t do everything, so embrace your limitations and focus on what actually matters. Time is something to experience not to use.”
Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig; Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
Recommended by Harri Burton, Course Assistant.
“These are a couple books I want to recommend, from the same author. They have really short paragraphs, and you can return to them whenever you need to.”
If this sounds interesting to you, then we have a copy of ‘Reasons to Stay Alive’ in the SLG room (next to reception in Pears), which you are more than welcome to borrow during your breaks in the Pears building.
Reading is a great tool to help improve your wellbeing, and these are just a few examples of some books which we believe you may find enjoyable. Kent also provides a reading list with a collection of wellbeing and self-help books that you may find interesting, many of which are available at the Templeman Library. If you have any recommendations, then please let us know! As we would love to hear them and read them too and potentially feature them in a future blog post.
