Stumbling on Happiness Review
In fairness, I haven't managed a thorough read yet. So far, my impression is that skepticism is the starting place and test frame for this author's survey of happiness as a state and a practical possibility. I like his effort. I take a much different approach and you should feel free to do so as well.
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Customer Reviews
I will read it again! - A. Spann - Florida
I so enjoyed reading this book. I was not expecting it to give me the cure for unhappiness. The author tells you in the forward that this is NOT a self help book. It's entertaining, informative, and a very good read. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy psychology.
Acceptable with the Right Expectations - LostButOptimistic -
I recently finished listening to the audio book version of Stumbling on Happiness. Gilbert spends an excruciatingly inordinate amount of time describing the results of research study after research study in an effort to convince the unfortunate receiver of this information that their mind is fundamentally and systematically flawed. Essentially, folks, your mind cannot be trusted.
Eventually though, the author does finally find his way to a conclusion and provides some guidance on finding happiness. To avoid stumbling around like a fool, simply look to your fellow man. You know, the one who despite being saddled with the same inept mental machinery as the rest of us still found his way to happiness. We are left to speculate for ourselves about how this marvelous creature found it, but no worries just follow his example.
Unfortunately, there is one important exception. When it comes to our poor predecessor's proclamation of joy for parenthood, faulty thinking made its way into his head. You see, research shows he is wrong about a child's ability to bring happiness to your life. You must avoid parenthood if you really want blissful fulfillment from your time on the right side of the grass.
So why is it worth 2 stars and what do I mean by the right expectations? If you're willing to slog your way through the research presented in this book, then you could learn common thinking errors that demonstrate persistence across age groups, gender, etc. Knowledge of these errors may, though I suspect the author might disagree here, help you make better decisions.
Go into Stumbling with a high self-esteem and a confidence in your decision making ability. Expect to come out with less of both and learn very little regarding the pursuit of happiness. Perhaps then, you will enjoy the book more than I. Good luck.
Skip to the Last Chapter - Steven Carter - Virginia, MN United States
A long haul. The author never really fulfills his mission. He never adequately summarizes his points although the last chapter comes close. He tries too hard to by cute. He forgets that most people aren't as wealthy as him loses sight of the fact that experiences he portrays as day-to-day events would be luxuries to most readers. Just read the last chapter and you have most of the value of the book. The rest is longwinded filler.
Overwritten and Disappointing - Seoigheach -
I give this book 2 stars because the author's achievement fell so short of his evident credentials to write about this subject. First, the writing. One of the blurbs accurately describes Mr. Gilbert's style as falling somewhere between Gladwell and Sedaris. Mr. Gilbert simply tries to hard to be entertaining on every page, sometimes every paragraph, every sentence. The result is a chatty logorrhea that often dumbs down the underlying science. He also feels it necessary to devote far too much space to rather obvious points (such as the use of statistics in science).
The substantive points of the book are worth making, but they could have been presented with greater depth and fidelity to the background research. They can also be summed up with other reviewers' observations that our ideas about our happiness, others' happiness, future and past happiness are based on misunderstandings or misperceptions of the concept. Mr. Gilbert rather facilely sidesteps the question of what happiness is or might be or whether there are different things confusingly tagged by the single word. Pace, professor, but the elusive nature of what we or others might mean by it cannot be brushed aside by saying you know it when you feel it.
You could get a lot more on this subject by taking an elderly relative to dinner and listening to them discourse about the subject at random.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 08, 2010 23:50:06
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