Book Review: The Happiness Project

I'm a writer - and a reader. So it stands to reason that I'm going to write about the books I read, especially now that I have more time and will be purchasing even more books. (Reader alert: buy Chapters/Indigo stocks now!)

I recently finished reading The Happiness Project. I'd been resisting it - just another one of those "by-the-numbers-self-help-books" I thought. Well, gentle reader, was I ever right!

I'm not going to pan this book completely. After all I read the whole thing and if it had been all that bad, I would have given up at chapter 2 or 3. The book gave a few helpful tips but to wrap an entire book around a couple of items is, I think, a rather audacious idea. But I do think it fits into the current North American mindset: give me a pill; give me a quick fix; make it easy; I want step by step easy to follow instructions.

There is no magic pill. The answers are inside and we have to do the work to listen, to discover who we are and then to be the best "me" we can be and from that solid base to do the best we can.

What I found particularly curious about The Happiness Project was its utter lack of happy. It's a very serious book. You won't get any smiles or laughter out of it. The writer is a researcher - hence an analyzer with a large dollop of controller tossed in. I lost track of how many times she used the phrase "Studies show that...." but I promise you it was at least a dozen times too many. It's just not a joyous or uplifting book - and I think that it ought to be.

On the other hand, this book will have great appeal for people who like charts and graphs and who hate to go on a trip without a road map, GPS system and overnight bookings for every stop along the way. If you actually have to schedule in spontaneity, you'll probably get a lot out of this book, like more efficient ways to schedule your moments of serendipity.

And good for Gretchen Rubin. She has successfully tapped into a zeitgeist - people are forming Happiness Project support groups all over the U.S. - which, I am sad to think, says a lot about the state of happiness today.