another one about a blogger.

So, I just finished The Happiness Project - a novel that has been lauded all over blogland.  But I wasn't impressed.  I'm getting tired of thirty somethings with cliche ideas that can't write.  Harsh, I know.  Would I, could I be ambitious enough to publish my own little thing.  Then, I could judge.

The author Gretchen Rubin counters John Stuart Mill and his quote:
"ask yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so."

Rubin firmly believes in the intentional pursuit of happiness.  She directs us to create a resolution checklist full of activities to bring joy to our days (i.e. straightening the piles, always accepting invitations and reading memoirs of catastrophe to build gratitude).  The checklist made me exhausted. I'm left feeling that for most of us the solution to finding happiness is to lighten up.

I'd like to recommend Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner (a former NPR reporter) for those that want to delve into the genuinely compelling topic of happiness.  God knows, Americans don't corner the market on what it means to be happy AND Eric Weiner explores the globe to explain why.