Let me start by saying that self-help and inspirational books tend to be a mixed bag for me. I like memoirs and some of the "stunt" memoirs variety {the author did something for a year and then wrote about it}, but some I really don't. For example, I really enjoyed My Year With Eleanor and Eat, Pray Love. Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy The Happiness Project.
This book is about Gretchen Rubin, who wakes up one night and decides that while she's happy, she could be happier. So she embarks on a year long project to make herself even happier than she already is.
Before I tell you why I just couldn't get into this one, I want to preface by saying that I can somewhat relate to Ms. Rubin. She focuses on a different thing each month and works to fix the little things that can cause unhappiness: snapping at loved ones, accumulating too much clutter, etc. This is something I try to do in my daily life and I believe that as good humans we ALL try and do these things.
But, and this is a big one, I didn't like Ms. Rubin's attitude. She comes from a place of a lot of privilege, and frankly fits very well into the stereotype of the wife that every man is afraid he's going to marry. She self-admittedly snaps and argues with her husband {and her family and her friends} about everything {including one notable scene where she argues that her husband's life is DOOMED and nothing anyone else can say will make it better}. More than that, I found the book poorly researched. She makes lots of claims about happiness, and why people are happy, but doesn't really cite her sources, not even to throw out, "this entity did a study and found that...." No, it's more like, "they say that...." I have a problem with that. Either have a research component or don't, but if you include one, don't just throw random numbers and statistics out there.
I was sad that I didn't like this one as much as everyone else seemed to. I was ready to like it, and in the end, I found myself slogging through page after page.
For those of you who read the book, what did you think?
Linking up {late! sorry!}!
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| {Source: Goodreads} |
This book is about Gretchen Rubin, who wakes up one night and decides that while she's happy, she could be happier. So she embarks on a year long project to make herself even happier than she already is.
Before I tell you why I just couldn't get into this one, I want to preface by saying that I can somewhat relate to Ms. Rubin. She focuses on a different thing each month and works to fix the little things that can cause unhappiness: snapping at loved ones, accumulating too much clutter, etc. This is something I try to do in my daily life and I believe that as good humans we ALL try and do these things.
But, and this is a big one, I didn't like Ms. Rubin's attitude. She comes from a place of a lot of privilege, and frankly fits very well into the stereotype of the wife that every man is afraid he's going to marry. She self-admittedly snaps and argues with her husband {and her family and her friends} about everything {including one notable scene where she argues that her husband's life is DOOMED and nothing anyone else can say will make it better}. More than that, I found the book poorly researched. She makes lots of claims about happiness, and why people are happy, but doesn't really cite her sources, not even to throw out, "this entity did a study and found that...." No, it's more like, "they say that...." I have a problem with that. Either have a research component or don't, but if you include one, don't just throw random numbers and statistics out there.
I was sad that I didn't like this one as much as everyone else seemed to. I was ready to like it, and in the end, I found myself slogging through page after page.
For those of you who read the book, what did you think?
Linking up {late! sorry!}!
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