We always have these threads about depressed people wanting to better themselves by exploring the wonderful world of books and I think we need a simple guide they can all turn to.
After much consideration, here are a list of books to read through to turn you into a healthy happy human being.
1. Harry Potter - These books will provide you with a comfy fantasy world to help you forget about real world feels. These books you make you feel, but in the context of fiction, you'll help deal with real feels.
2. A Song of Ice and Fire - It may seem like these books are depressing, and they are, but like above, they will help you deal with your feels better, but on a mature level. You'll learn about how history and politics shape our lives and maybe you'll learn to care about real world issues and give you a reason to help change the world.
3. Meditations - this is by a famous Roman emperor and it contains a lot of helpful advice on being a calm rational person in the face of a problem. Most philosophy books are concerned with weird metaphysical questions, but some of them are actually very helpful in letting you live a good life and this is one of them.
4. The Odyssey - Odysseus is an example of a character who's done just as much good IRL as most real people. He has helped as a role model for everyone finding their way home in the journey of our lives.
4.5 (optional). Ulysses - This book is a modern day retelling of The Odyssey. It isn't really necessary to improve your life, and it isn't meant to be. It's just a fun mix of styles and it's packed with many literary references which you may not get, but that's okay. If you think this sounds like a fun book, you can have fun with it, but it being mostly style over substance, it's okay to skip out on it for now.
5. Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace is often treated as a saint because he realized all of the terrible cynicism caused by irony in our modern era, and knew that the only way to defeat it is to live life more sincerely. Infinite Jest is a very long and difficult book, but it's very rewarding. You'll feel stronger when you finish it and learn to better live in our cynical ironic world.
You should also know that you shouldn't feel bad if these books take a long time to finish. If you have your own pace for reading, then it's okay to follow it because reading is about improving yourself and you know what's best for yourself.
I hope this guide will be very helpful for you. Happy reading!