Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Thoughts on The Happiness Project after 90 pages



So, I am reading The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin this month for my Book Group. It was one of three choices given to us by September's host and was voted by the rest of us as the one to read. It isn't the type of book I would normally read. Most of you probably realize that I almost always only read fiction with a few occasions when I pick up a nonfiction book.  
 
Anyway, the reason I bring this up now, before actually finishing the book, is that there are a few things I wanted to discuss right now. It reminds me a lot of the type of writing and self examination made by Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat Pray Love and Julie Powell in Julie & Julia. All three writers, successful women looking for happiness and/or meaning in their lives but in different ways. One through travel and search for spiritual awakening, the other by cooking her way through a Julia Childs' cookbook and Rubin- trying out different ideas on how to be happy. All three achieved/attempted in a year.

This Project seems a little more planned for a book than an actual search for happiness, but despite that and the millions (yes, I am exaggerating) of quotes on happiness peppered throughout the pages, there are some things I am getting out of it...some good ideas on marriage and parenthood. Things I might actually attempt to keep the bickering down, but really, couldn't I have figured out on my own that nagging is counterproductive to happiness?
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7 comments:

  1. I haven't read the book but I subscribe to her website and get her posts through my email. I especially like her videos. They aren't always something that applies to me but I still enjoy them.

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  2. Nari @ The Novel WorldSeptember 7, 2011 at 3:40 PM

    Its so refreshing to read your review of this book. I thought I was alone in the "I don't love this book" club.

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  3. I have heard a lot about this book, but I am not sure it is my type of read...

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  4. I probably wouldn't have read it if I didn't have to for my book group.

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  5. I will be interested to see how everyone else in my book group liked it.

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  6. I haven't checked out her website yet. Will do soon.

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  7. Personally, I was disappointed by this book. A lot of the stuff was pretty common sense.

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Thanks for taking the time to comment! :)