Besides the economy, nothing is more frightening right now than the fresh doomsday selection of books piled on the career and business tables at book stores. Titles range from the paltry, like Don’t Get Caught With Your Skirt Down and the poignant, like Fired, Laid Off or Forced Out, to the melodramatic: The Battle for Wall Street.

The latter could be made into a Hollywood thriller, but the realities of these times are stark. Nearly 600,000 people lost their jobs last month, and the unemployment rate stands at 7.6 percent, its highest mark in 16 years. The rest of 2009 doesn’t look much better, but publishing companies (in dire straits themselves) are trying to persevere, hawking titles that stir our unemployed souls and aim for our thinning pocketbooks.

However, the strategy doesn’t appear to be working. A quick scan of best-seller lists on the web reveals that most people seek their reading comforts in novels, diet crazes, biographies, and history. In fact, only two books on Amazon’s Top 25 most-popular books list that have anything loosely to do with careers: one is a look at how the economy is going through a government-induced meltdown, and the other blames FDR for our current woes.

Neither one is the most popular book on Amazon. That honor goes to a paperback beach novel that reads as an “invitation to journey to the very heart of God,” according to one review.

The New York Times Best Sellers list has a Suze Orman financial advice book but nothing else in the careers ballpark. Popular titles come from John Grisham, President Barack Obama, and a guy named Tucker Max, who wrote a book about, well, “banging chicks”. Light reading, indeed.

Still, book publishers have thrown a lot of money at playing to the public’s fears with titles in red bold print, excessive exclamation points and cover art bearing money on fire or melting.

“Good news does not sell well,” said Kathy Bailey, a career coach in Silver Spring, MD.

There isn’t much good news coming from the American economy. And it is difficult to know from a title whether a book contains useful information in terms of career.

“I prefer to keep a positive orientation because where we focus our intention expands,” she said. “I am in the business of helping my clients achieve positive outcomes.”

Bailey recommends her clients delve into the Internet and scour libraries for good information. That way, she said, a user can more precisely find relevant information without spending unnecessary time and money. Still, many are still having trouble finding job. So, what is a job seeker to do?

Exactly the same thing you would do in an up economy, said career consultant Ane Powers.

“One must have a clear message and talk to a lot of people,” she said. “A job campaign is a marketing campaign: You have to know who your market niche is, what the product is that you’re selling and what the price point is that people are willing to pay, and be able to communicate the value of your product to your market niche. You are a business of one in this search.”

Below are some books you should read and a few that you should never touch.

Books You Should Not Read, Based on Cover Art/Title/Fear Mongering

Contagion: The Financial Epidemic That Is Sweeping the Global Economy… and How to Protect Yourself from It by John R. Talbott, $24.95.

Don’t Get Caught With Your Skirt Down: A Practical Girl’s Recession Guide by Jill Keto, $15

Fired, Laid Off or Forced Out!: A Complete Guide to Severance, Benefits and Your Rights When You’re Starting Over by Richard C. Bussee, $14.95.

The Battle for Wall Street: Behind the Lines in the Struggle that Pushed an Industry into Turmoil by Richard Goldberg, $29.95.

Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse by Thomas E. Woods Jr. (forward by Ron Paul), $27.95.

The Great Depression Ahead: How to Prosper in the Crash Following the Greatest Boom in History by Harry S. Dent Jr., $27.

Timeless Career/Business Books You Should Read

Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design by Laurence G. Boldt, $22.

The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason, $6.99.

What Color Is Your Parachute? 2009: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard Nelson Bolles, $18.95.

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten, $25.95.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, $16.95.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, $15.95.

On Writing Well by William Zinsser, $14.95.

The Bible, Torah or Qur’an by God, prices may vary.