The Happiness Project - Book 60

Happy New Year! I finished reading The Happiness Project yesterday evening, but then I never did get around to writing this review for it. But it is my last book for 2012, not my first for 2013.

I liked this book a lot. There are many honest and very practical insights into maximizing one's happiness in it. It was inspiring in many ways, so it was a good book to read right before the new year, when I tend to have many resolutions rolling around in my head. The author, Gretchen Rubin, is very methodical in her efforts to appreciate life and its blessings and to dig to the bottom of what truly makes one happy. I liked many of her conclusions and on one level felt a real recognition of myself in some of her honest revelations about her own character and what really makes her happy. For one thing when she was studying Buddhism because everyone thought that would be a good way to study happiness, she could intelligently and in an informed way, say no, not for me! She put into words my own response to Buddhism almost exactly. I, however, have to say I have always found koans to be not so illuminating. I did like the way she translated traditional koans into the the little maxims she had run across in her life that had stuck with her. I thought that was a nice insight. The other thing that kind of amazed me about the author was her devotion to St. Therese of Lisieux. She admitted to owning 17 books about St. Therese! Rubin defines herself as a 'reverent agnostic.' I appreciated her sincerity and reverence.

Another thing I really was impressed by was how well read the author is. She really pulled from a wide variety of reading, from Ancient philosophers to Samuel Johnson to current psychological studies. She loves to research and she certainly did hers thoroughly. (As an aside, this book made me vow to myself that I am going to read Boswell's Life of Johnson this year. I started it a couple years ago on the Kindle but I decided it was the type of book where I wanted a real book not a Kindle version).

But there was something about this book that felt a little flat to me. I think it was that the author could take us to the brink of true spiritual happiness but never seemed to get further than that. The subject matter of happiness felt limited, like a goal to be met like losing weight or learning to cook better, but it didn't deliver at the level of the human soul, to me. It dances around that, and never quite delivered something truly profound. So I felt something lacking throughout the book and at times I felt like I was reading a series of magazine articles on happiness. There was a certain lack of depth and warmth, in spite of all the research and anecdotes about her husband and children.

That said, I am really curious about her resolutions chart! She said in the final analysis, the thing that kept her on track with her resolutions (resolutions helped her behave better and made her feel more accomplished) was a chart she made up at the beginning of the year and which she reviewed daily. I want that chart!

She has a website and a new book which I may read as well.