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A review by offworldcolony
Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine by Derren Brown
5.0
Nothing short of life-affirming and life-changing. Happy by Derren Brown is a weighty tome because it is intentionally made easy to digest. Covering every topic (except sex) in brisk detail that you could ever think about needing for living and living happy, I really can’t undersell how this book should be recommended to absolutely every adult from young to old.
In my twenties, I may have thought I already knew everything contained within this book with typical self-esteem and anxiety-masking arrogance, and railed against the parts I wasn’t ready to hear. In my thirties I feel affirmed at the conclusions I came to the (very) hard way on my own and feel enlightened by the thought-pathways and challenges I hadn’t considered before or hadn't seen framed that way before.
I want to pin such elegantly simple and to-the-core cutting passages to every room in my house. I want everyone I know to have read this book so when life is hard or we act out of character we have shared maxims to refer each other to; I dream of us all singing off the same, kind song sheet. But failing that I can at least recommend it to all my friends and family with increasing furore.
Historical, sometimes personal, sensitive, honest by way of directness, caring and moving; Happy is the best book I’ve ever read in this category and very probably the final word on it. It is the only book I will be religiously(!) reading, as soon as I’ve finished it, again, forever and ever.
I love that the smiling face that ends each chapter that starts as something decidedly ironic grows into something of real warmth and a very real and earnest connection between Derren Brown and the Reader.
In my twenties, I may have thought I already knew everything contained within this book with typical self-esteem and anxiety-masking arrogance, and railed against the parts I wasn’t ready to hear. In my thirties I feel affirmed at the conclusions I came to the (very) hard way on my own and feel enlightened by the thought-pathways and challenges I hadn’t considered before or hadn't seen framed that way before.
I want to pin such elegantly simple and to-the-core cutting passages to every room in my house. I want everyone I know to have read this book so when life is hard or we act out of character we have shared maxims to refer each other to; I dream of us all singing off the same, kind song sheet. But failing that I can at least recommend it to all my friends and family with increasing furore.
Historical, sometimes personal, sensitive, honest by way of directness, caring and moving; Happy is the best book I’ve ever read in this category and very probably the final word on it. It is the only book I will be religiously(!) reading, as soon as I’ve finished it, again, forever and ever.
I love that the smiling face that ends each chapter that starts as something decidedly ironic grows into something of real warmth and a very real and earnest connection between Derren Brown and the Reader.