Greene's books aren't bad, but I would regard them as entertainment rather than prescriptive. The problem with "48 Laws" isn't the idea that there are lots of laws to power and some anecdotes to illustrate them, but that the impression it gives that there are 48 of them and if you forget any you are doomed to failure; it's unactionable. That doesn't make it a bad book at all, just an entertaining one rather than helpful.
But then, most "self-help" books are this way: surveys of feel-good ideas that cover a lot of ground and promise success. I get a great deal more out of very focused books that have one or two key ideas backed up by data and observation. For the idea of mastery, Dan Coyle's "The Talent Code" is great; Carol Dweck's "Mindset" is another example of a focused topic, and Roy Baumeister's "Willpower" is extremely good as well (one of the best books I've read in the last year or so probably).
That doesn't mean I think Green's books aren't worth reading... I just don't find them useful.
But then, most "self-help" books are this way: surveys of feel-good ideas that cover a lot of ground and promise success. I get a great deal more out of very focused books that have one or two key ideas backed up by data and observation. For the idea of mastery, Dan Coyle's "The Talent Code" is great; Carol Dweck's "Mindset" is another example of a focused topic, and Roy Baumeister's "Willpower" is extremely good as well (one of the best books I've read in the last year or so probably).
That doesn't mean I think Green's books aren't worth reading... I just don't find them useful.