Book Review, The Happiness Project

The Happiness Project

by Gretchen Rubin

I have mixed feelings about this book.  On the one hand, it's well-written, entertaining, funny in parts and overall a good read. On the other hand I find it odd and annoying in many ways.

I'll start with the latter.  The author is a woman who is highly educated (she has a law degree), is wealthy and has a loving husband, two kids, good health, a nice apartment on the Upper East Side in New York City and grandparents that she gets along with and that help out and live nearby.  I don't think she knows the first thing about what happiness is if she can't understand that this is the crux of it.  She writes about being bored and about being annoyed with her husband and kids over trivial things as well as being unhappy because her apartment isn't spotless.  This is her version of unhappiness?  I think the book is titled incorrectly.  Maybe it should be called "A Year's Worth of Life Hacks", or "Gretchen is Bored and Wants to Make Money on a Gimmicky Book" but not "The Happiness Project".  She also over-intellectualizes everything and she seems to have some personality problems like perfectionism and a need to be in constant control as well as, possibly, a lot of repressed anger.

But even if that's the case, I found her book worth reading.  I especially liked the chapter about getting more sleep, decluttering your home and clever tips for doing those things.  I also like how she writes about figuring out what makes you happy and not worrying about what anyone else's version of happiness or fun is.  There are also some guidelines at the end of the book for the reader to start their own happiness project which is pretty cool.

So even though the author seems kind of out of touch with the reality that most of us live in, I still liked her book.  I just have a problem with her idea of what happiness is.  For me, happiness comes for the quality of your relationships, love, family and all that.  She seems to have trouble appreciating that she already has that.  Or maybe she really isn't happy in her relationship and with her kids and she doesn't want to admit that to herself.  It's odd, but by the time I got to the end of "The Happiness Project" I was thinking more about the author and what was going on with her than about the book.