Comments on: Happy books!

Question: Happy books!

missjamielynn — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:21:51 -0800

Can you recommend good books on the study of happiness?

I'm looking to find good books on the topic of happiness. Self-help books are ok, but I'm more interested in happiness across cultures-how they achieve it, and how they perceive it. Thanks!

By: Acari

Acari — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:25:57 -0800

well, I'm reading this right now.
It's more self-helpy, but not aggravatingly so.

By: Estragon

Estragon — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:26:15 -0800

Authentic Happiness.

By: maudlin

maudlin — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:30:46 -0800

Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness is fairly broad, although not necessarily cross-cultural.

From a Buddhist perspective: The Art of Happiness from the Dalai Lama. (On preview: acari has it).

This Harvard magazine article is an quick and readable overview of psychological research in the area.

By: burnmp3s

burnmp3s — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:35:40 -0800

I've heard the term "Positive Psychology" used to describe this topic. I haven't read either of them, but a quick search turned up The Happiness Hypothesis and Happiness: A History, which seem to fit your description.

By: mattbucher

mattbucher — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:38:30 -0800

Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile by Daniel Nettle

By: azure_swing

azure_swing — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:41:49 -0800

There are good things in both Stumbling on Happiness and The Happiness Hypothesis (mentioned above), though they're a bit thin on cross-cultural comparisons (Haidt has a little of that, having spent some time in India, but uses the Indian experience mostly as support for his line of thinking). Both books are well worth reading.

By: Blacksun

Blacksun — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:48:48 -0800

How Proust can Make You Happy by Alain de Botton is brilliant.

For a psychoanalyst's take on happiness, you can't go far wrong with this Going Sane by Adam Phillips.

By: mykescipark

mykescipark — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 20:56:02 -0800

Nicomachean Ethics.

By: General Malaise

General Malaise — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:00:19 -0800

Aristotle and John Stuart Mill.

By: post punk

post punk — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:12:18 -0800

Flow
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

(highly recommended)

By: be11e

be11e — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:13:44 -0800

Happiness: A History, by Darrin M. McMahon.

By: i8ny3x

i8ny3x — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:19:21 -0800

Happy (hehe) to oblige.
I didn't listen to the broadcast, but today on my NPR affiliate I heard of a book called "The Geography of Bliss: In Search of the Happiest Places on Earth." (Amazon link)
You can listen to the mp3 broadcast with the author, Eric Wiener here

By: padraigin

padraigin — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:22:46 -0800

A blog that might interest you is The Happiness Project. She's exploring a lot of the different schools of thought out there, and it's great reading, as well as probably being a rich resource for the type of book you're looking for.

By: ShooBoo

ShooBoo — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:41:02 -0800

What Happy People Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Life for the Better

By: dawson

dawson — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:03:23 -0800

The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think Is Right Is Wrong . Very highly recommended.

By: korej

korej — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:11:31 -0800

The Joy of Living might also be of interest - also Buddhist,, may be more self-helpish than you want, but I found it enjoyable

By: bigmusic

bigmusic — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:14:09 -0800

I know you asked for books, but here are some excellent resources that you can listen to on the web about happiness.

TED Talks: What Makes Us Happy
Science Friday: Happiness
This American Life: Pursuit of Happiness

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:19:57 -0800

2nding Nicomanchean Ethics

By: phrontist

phrontist — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:24:51 -0800

Betrand Russel's The Conquest of Happiness. I'm not recommending it per se, but it's not bad either.

By: dawson

dawson — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:50:59 -0800

Follow up: recently I enjoyed this essay (via Arts & Letters Daily) by Eric G. Wilson, author of Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy. I haven't read the book yet (it comes out the 22nd) but I was interested/impressed enough to pre-order a library copy.

By: robotdog

robotdog — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:10:44 -0800

seconding flow

and also: Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life by Wayne Dyer

the tao te ching

By: buriedpaul

buriedpaul — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:23:54 -0800

I second Bertrand Russel's The Conquest of Happiness. I recommend it, even.

By: wafaa

wafaa — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:13:19 -0800

Thirding Flow.

By: orangemiles

orangemiles — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:15:54 -0800

Seconding The Happiness Project blog.

By: thinkingwoman

thinkingwoman — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:31:58 -0800

an interesting (and very beautiful) counterpoint: in praise of melancholy. his observations about happiness are astute. the essay is adapted from a forthcoming book.

By: Parsnip

Parsnip — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:40:16 -0800

One way to define happiness is by contrast with an opposite in the same way in which to talk about liberty one must explore boundaries and restrictions. If this approach is in any way interesting to you have a look at a Romanian / French philosopher called Emil Cioran. His books on despair are mesmerising!

By: boudicca

boudicca — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 05:03:14 -0800

Richard Layard, an Economics professor at the London School of Economics, gave a lecture series on happiness and subsequently published a book. I haven't read the book, but the lecture series was intriguing - happiness from the perspective on an economist.

By: Riverine

Riverine — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:31:40 -0800

I suggest The Happiness Myth, by Jennifer Michael Hecht. She takes a historical view which helps put things into perspective. She's also a poet. It's good reading.

She's got another happiness book coming out next month, too, apparently.

By: Mozzie

Mozzie — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:50:34 -0800

I plowed through Stumbling onto Happiness. It is readable and useful. Sort of Mind Hacks for your happiness meter. As a bonus, the book validates that using AskMeFi is the best way to make yourself happy. (He says that the thing that works best when needing to make a decision about what will make your future self happy is to ask advice from people who had to make a similar decision.)

I'm also working on Happier. Which is based on a class the author teaches at Harvard.

By: Quarter Pincher

Quarter Pincher — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:47:36 -0800

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. It's generally about communicating love to one's spouse, but it has a broad range of application, in learning just what makes your happiness/joy meter peg right and hold with excitement, and learning what others interpret as a gesture that excites them just as much. Totally changed my interaction with people, I can pick up on what they seem to be running on fumes looking for to be filled back up with hope and eagerness to live the next day relatively easily, and also discovered what particularly "that one thing" that unlocks my happiness beyond discernable measure, and it was all so very simple. Turned out most of my childhood memories involved this particular aspect of interpreting expressions love and I never realized the common factor until I read the book. Instead of focusing on the subject matter of marriage-salvaging, consider it instead as relationship flame-fanning in general (and if you can disregard the Christian references if you're otherwise minded), it really has been a revolutionary new outlook for me.

By: spankbot

spankbot — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:00:30 -0800

"Happiness Is a Serious" Problem by Dennis Prager is a must. Rather than a howto manual for happiness, this book is a moral philosophy for happiness. Very short, well written and concise - this book is a must for people concerned about this topic.

By: dawson

dawson — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 22:34:26 -0800

another, for posterity: "The How of Happiness" by Sonja Lyubomirsky

By: monkeyagent

monkeyagent — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 11:15:28 -0800

"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho