The Happiness Project (Rubin)
May. 18th, 2011 07:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cahn3+/5 - So a couple of years ago I attempted to read Eat, Pray, Love, and got through maybe a chapter, or less, of whining by some entitled privileged shallow brat who thought it would be a great idea to run away from all her responsibilities and seek happiness by sexing up random guys. Um, no.
This book is about an entitled privileged shallow woman who knows it and appreciates it, and wow what a difference that makes. Rubin may be entitled and shallow, but she's not a brat. She seeks happiness by, basically, finding it in her responsibilities and not whining and appreciating her life. Yay! Being an entitled privileged shallow person myself, I found her book quite useful in a practical sense (e.g., the parts on getting rid of clutter boosting her happiness... that is so me). And I quite liked her Splendid Truths, none of which are earth-shattering but all of which are useful to think about (at least to me -- e.g., the first one is, "To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth," which isn't rocket science but isn't completely trivial either).
The only thing that really annoyed me about this book was the number of times she says "Studies show..." and then does not cite anything. gah. Are you quoting an actual study, are you quoting Malcolm Gladwell thinking he knows something, what? In general, the whole "Now I must go and do a superficial level of research and look how cool I am, I actually read books on it!!" vibe got on my nerves a bit (otherwise I might have liked it more), but mostly (especially when she talked about her own experiences with keeping resolutions) I felt she had things to say that it was worth it for me to hear.
So. Um. If you're not entitled and shallow like me, I don't think I quite dare recommend it, but if you are, you may like it and/or find it useful!
This book is about an entitled privileged shallow woman who knows it and appreciates it, and wow what a difference that makes. Rubin may be entitled and shallow, but she's not a brat. She seeks happiness by, basically, finding it in her responsibilities and not whining and appreciating her life. Yay! Being an entitled privileged shallow person myself, I found her book quite useful in a practical sense (e.g., the parts on getting rid of clutter boosting her happiness... that is so me). And I quite liked her Splendid Truths, none of which are earth-shattering but all of which are useful to think about (at least to me -- e.g., the first one is, "To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth," which isn't rocket science but isn't completely trivial either).
The only thing that really annoyed me about this book was the number of times she says "Studies show..." and then does not cite anything. gah. Are you quoting an actual study, are you quoting Malcolm Gladwell thinking he knows something, what? In general, the whole "Now I must go and do a superficial level of research and look how cool I am, I actually read books on it!!" vibe got on my nerves a bit (otherwise I might have liked it more), but mostly (especially when she talked about her own experiences with keeping resolutions) I felt she had things to say that it was worth it for me to hear.
So. Um. If you're not entitled and shallow like me, I don't think I quite dare recommend it, but if you are, you may like it and/or find it useful!
