12/18/12

The Happiness Project

55.  The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
by Gretchen Rubin
Non-Fiction
My Library



One of my favorite books of the year!  Gretchen takes a very practical approach to the idea of happiness, making personal rules, along with monthly resolutions.  She weaves a great amount of research into the account of her experiment, which really enriches the narrative.  I like accounts of people tackling a big project; see my review of "The Year of Living Biblically."

Happiness is such a multi-faceted idea, and this book focuses very much on the real world in front of us.  I found her ideas interesting and valuable, though certainly not comprehensive.


Favorite Quotes:
Another study suggested that getting one extra hour of sleep each night would do more for a person's daily happiness than getting a $60,000 raise.

Love is a funny thing.  I'd donate a kidney to Jamie without a moment's hesitation, but was intensely annoyed if he asked me to make a special stop at the drugstore to pick up shaving cream.

A line by G.K. Chesterton..."It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light" (or as the saying goes, "Dying is easy; comedy is hard."

In fact, researchers reported that out of fifteen daily activities, they found only one during which people were happier alone rather than with other people -- and that was praying.  To my mind, that isn't an exception at all.  The point of praying is that you're not talking to yourself.

Gretchen's Second Splendid Truth"
One of the best ways to make myself happy is to make other people happy.
One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy myself.

Robert Lewis Stevenson said, "There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy."

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(I've finally caught up!  I've blogged about all the books I've read!  Yea!)

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