Why I Rarely Read Self-Help Books

Whenever I meet a new friend, sometimes the conversation turns to what books we are currently reading and most of the time, their list would always include self-help books (although Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist is a novel, it actually reads like a self-help book), a genre which I normally do not bother to browse for the simple reason that since I read fiction, I learn all my self-help knowledge from how the characters of these books I'm reading face the dilemmas and deal with the problems that are dealt to them.  In my experience, I find it more interesting and in a way, I could learn more from the character rather than reading advice from a self-help book.  I actually find reading the latter a bit tedious.