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Happy life with a "Happy" book! Oct 09, 2009
This is a great book. I would highly recommend it to anyone searching for answers on how to bring more happiness into their life. It has real-world examples, and ideas for how to be more receptive to happy situations. Great read!!!
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 Okay, but there are better introductions Aug 08, 2009
.....and there are better follow-ups after your introduction.
This does descend into mimicking the self-help genre pretty quickly.
I think my issue with this book is that the author underpins his reflections and conclusions too often with, with, well, not with much other than his opinion supported by Samuel Smiles type aphorisms.
This is a shame, because the field of Positive Psychology (capital letters employed deliberately) has so much going for it, not least a substantial serious wealth of empirical data to support it.
I understand that the author's lectures at Harvard are incredibly well-attended and indeed well-regarded. Not quite sure why, on this showing.
It's not a pure example of the self-help genre (thank goodness), but neither is it sufficiently scholarly or referenced to be much more.
In fact one of the books that Ben-Shahar should have included in his bibliography, but for some inexplicable reason didn't, would be a far better introduction: "The Happiness Hypothesis", by Jonathan Haidt (a definite 5 star read) is everything this book should have been, but was published a least a year earlier.
An alternative introduction, more practical but better-referenced than "Happier" is Ilona Boniwell's "Positive Psychology in a Nutshell", which I can also recommend whole-heartedly.
 Excellent Ideas in a Quick Read. Especially great for thinking types. Aug 02, 2009
This was a very fast reading book, although not because of a lightness of ideas. The writer includes his theory of happiness and how to find it. He is a Harvard academic which is evident in the way that the principles are laid out so theoretically, with illustrations and key concepts. He makes several practical suggestions based on his ideas and that is what I found most useful. He recommends some contemplation exercises and stresses that happiness is the critical "currency" that society should be emphasizing. Definitely, if you are interested in being happier, read this book. It is very interesting and will help. I must say that my absolute all-time favorite and most helpful book seems even better to me after reading "Happier". That one is Effortless Wellbeing: The Missing Ingredients for Authentic Wellness. "Effortless Wellbeing" weaves several of the ideas (and many more) represented in "Happier" into its suggestions and practices, but without the academic feel. I see even more brilliance in "Effortless Wellbeing" after reading Happier. But, both would be an excellent approach on route to happiness.
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Stumble onto some happiness! Jul 21, 2009
A great read. It's about getting happy, really, in spite of yourelf. I loved the author's tone and the secrets to happiness have me a few ah-ha moments. All in all, this is a great read from start to finish and could probably help just about anyone. Another good read: You Can Heal Your Life (Gift Edition).
Brilliant, wise, honest, and pragmatic Jun 02, 2009
I'm thoroughly impressed by and grateful for this book. This is a very solid book on happiness, and I'd say it's one of the best in this important genre (what could really be more important?). I can readily see why Ben-Shahar's corresponding course is the most popular course at Harvard.
Ben-Shahar has masterfully distilled and synthesized a wide range of insights and advice related to happiness from a wide range of sources including wisdom traditions, philosophy, experimental psychology, and his own personal experience and deep reflection. As my review title indicates, the result is a book which is brilliant, wise, honest, and pragmatic. The book is also well-organized, clearly written, and unpretentious in the best self-help tradition.
The book covers too much ground for me to try to summarize its content, but I'd like to note that its insights and advice ring true with my personal experience. The thing is, though, it took me a couple of decades of adult life to stumble on much of what Ben-Shahar teaches, and I wouldn't have minded learning many of these lessons long ago, via the help of a book like this! Moreover, there's plenty in the book which never dawned on me before, so this book will surely help me in the future.
The only potential criticism I could offer is that Ben-Shahar doesn't really address the skeptic who seeks a meaning/purpose of life which has an infallible ultimate grounding. But I think it would be very unfair to expect him to address such a skeptic, since no one else has succeeded in doing that either, so I think that such a goal is well beyond the scope of a book like this. So, yes, Ben-Shahar does leave it to us as individuals to identify the "ultimate" meaning/purpose of our lives, but he still gives a very valuable and effective set of tools to live happier lives once we've done that, and that's a huge contribution.
I very highly recommend this book, and I can't think of anyone I couldn't recommend it to. In fact, quite a few people will be getting a copy of this book as a gift from me.
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