The Happiness Project: A Book Review
I just finished 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. First, let me say that I *loved* this book. Mainly, since I’ve been dealing with trying to highlight my own happiness, I really felt that reading this book at this point in my life was meant to be. It was just something I needed.
Someone asked me if this is a good book or if the author just rambled on and on and on about how happy she is and how she’s trying to get other people to be happy. The book isn’t really like that—it’s not a how-to book. Rather, it’s Rubin’s journey to find her own happiness. It started one day, out of the blue, while riding the bus. She thought, “The days are long but the years are short. Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” So she decided to start a happiness project. She created year-long resolutions for herself, focusing on a handful of mini-projects each month. She came up with twelve commandments to follow while focusing on these mini-projects, as well as her Secrets of Adulthood.
I don’t generally read much non-fiction, though I have been adding more non-fiction titles to my reading list. It seems that I’m currently focusing on books that describe people’s journey to bettering themselves. I guess that’s because it’s what I’m aiming to do in my own life at the moment.
I loved following Rubin on her journey. I could relate to a lot of what she had to say, and a lot of what she had to say got me thinking about starting my own happiness project, though, as she states, mine will be my own, rather than following hers. She provides guidelines for starting your own happiness project on her blog, which I have yet to look at. Once I look at that and through the many notes I’ve taken from the book, I will update you all as to what my happiness project will consist of. Let me just say that I have renamed my “Me Binder” to the “Happiness Binder.”
More to come…
Someone asked me if this is a good book or if the author just rambled on and on and on about how happy she is and how she’s trying to get other people to be happy. The book isn’t really like that—it’s not a how-to book. Rather, it’s Rubin’s journey to find her own happiness. It started one day, out of the blue, while riding the bus. She thought, “The days are long but the years are short. Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” So she decided to start a happiness project. She created year-long resolutions for herself, focusing on a handful of mini-projects each month. She came up with twelve commandments to follow while focusing on these mini-projects, as well as her Secrets of Adulthood.
I don’t generally read much non-fiction, though I have been adding more non-fiction titles to my reading list. It seems that I’m currently focusing on books that describe people’s journey to bettering themselves. I guess that’s because it’s what I’m aiming to do in my own life at the moment.
I loved following Rubin on her journey. I could relate to a lot of what she had to say, and a lot of what she had to say got me thinking about starting my own happiness project, though, as she states, mine will be my own, rather than following hers. She provides guidelines for starting your own happiness project on her blog, which I have yet to look at. Once I look at that and through the many notes I’ve taken from the book, I will update you all as to what my happiness project will consist of. Let me just say that I have renamed my “Me Binder” to the “Happiness Binder.”
More to come…
I've just bought this book for my Kindle - I'm taking your word that it's good! No pressure! :-P
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad! Let me know what you think. I hope you like it - I'll feel bad if you don't. But then, you can yell at me. ;)
ReplyDelete