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Can't remember if this one came from Recycling Factory of the Street Festival of Arabia. It will be a miracle if a book makes me sing in the morning or clean up my closets and I've never even wanted to read Aristotle. I'd be happy with little steps: clearing up my sofa and table & doing the dishes...
I'm especially interested in chapter 9: Pursue a passion - books. I cheated and looked ahead: It said "Write a novel in thirty days." Is this book meant to lower or increase stress??
If I wrote a novel in thirty days I would not feel very happy about it afterwards. So not only would I have a stressful month writing it - I would regret it the rest of my life. If all her advice is this good the book very soon moves to my private library annex in Kokkola.

Still reading, but I have to start commenting, otherwise I'll forget half of what I'd like to comment. First of all, I like the book. I had my pre-doubts, as I didn't like the name. How can happiness be a PROJECT? Aren't projects tasks, needing laborous efforts? In my mind these two words do not go together easily.
I read some and thought: this person doesn't aim at happiness. She wants to be perfect. And perfect and happiness aren't synonyms. She also approaches happiness in a very serious, scientific way, reading everything that has been written on the subject. Much too complicated for me.
Yet she wasn't at all pretending to be a know-it-all master on the matter. She could laugh at herself. She quoted what facts she had read and then told what had worked for her. And where she went wrong and tried again. A lot of it made sense and at least what she wrote was stimulating, it made you think the way you do things. I'm not gonna try everything. I've just told everyone how easy life has become ever since I turned 40 and grew my horns. Now I don't let people walk over me, I snap back. Should I try to become nice again? Learn to hold my tongue again? What's nice about that?
January's advices for boosting energy were all aimed at me. Sleep more. Actually I think I get the needed sleep most nights, because I usually wake up without the alarm and earlier than I used to. Perhaps I've become old, old people wake up early. And at weekends and during holidays I nap at daytime. Like old people. I thought this was a happiness project??
Excercise better. I should, perhaps, but I go for walks with my two dogs. My advice would be: If you are fat, lose weight. That is energising and brings happiness as well, if you succeed. I'm still overweight, but I've been more energetic since my divorce from Mr Fazer, Mr Chymos and Mr Panda. There is 12 kg less of me to drag around (it was already -15 kg, but then I went to Paris).
Toss,restore, organize. That stung! I'm a hoarder. I come from a long line of hamsters. We collect and keep the most odd things and I hate household duties. I've been given a doormat which says: "A clean house is a sign of a wasted life." I have a kitchen notice which says: "Boring women have tidy kitchens." I have a fridge magnet which says: "You can touch the dust, but please do not write in it." Get the picture? And since BC I've had these piles of books on shelves, tables, floor, sofa and TV (which I do not watch as I don't have the digi-thing). I hate the idea of having friends over as I like very few of them enough to bother to clean the flat. And I realize this is de-energising. Because in the back of my mind it is on a "do"-list; clear up!
Tackle a nagging task. Oh, which one? Unfinished tasks really are a drag. And they make me feel guilty. And they are sooo hard to get started with. And how to prioritize? If I don't do that, I can't do that either, because the first thing actually needed to be done first. This is so me.
Act more energetic. I doubt that I could be fooled by that.
February I could skip, no hubby.
March was a month when one should aim higher (is she by the way dropping all she learned the previous month when she moves on, or are all these things cumulating month after month after month? Doesn't say it).

To avoid too long journals I'm splitting these into several shorter ones. There has been a looong pause reading this book and according to my bookmark, I had gotten as far as July, but since I started commenting everything on a monthly basis, I should perhaps go back a bit and continue from April.
April's theme was parenting, so not my chapter. Yet I found something for me - the party host who said he would have fun afterwards. I know the feeling. Before it's horrendoes with the sort of order - or the lack of it - that I keep. Also preparing the food is far from a joy as I'm a lousy cook. I used to have a maid and a cook in my previous life. I miss them. Dreadfully. During the party can be stressful, too, if one has been stupid enough to try several courses. I should stick to finger food. So yes, I know what "afterwards" means. The relief when they all have gone. The evening wasn't a total catastrophe and you remember some of the good conversations and the general feeling of enjoyment & happiness. You read what has been written in the guest book, and the best part: You know that you do not have to do this again any time soon.
I was amazed to read what she said about writing. Of course it's nice to have something completed if it's a task you've meant to do, but I think writing itself is fun. Finding the right expressions, being witty, topping somebody else or just being able to share a funny thing that has happened to you - enjoyable in many ways. I also enjoy writing by hand, the process itself.
I'm so glad I don't have children. The book said:"Parent's shouldn't do anything they wouldn't want featured in an essey displaced on the wall for Parent Night." How stressful is that!!? I remember writing about one Mothers' Day: "On Mothers' Day Dad gave Mom a big bottle of booze." The teacher had corrected it: "...a big bottle of wine." (In Finnish it's only a difference of two letters; viinaa and viiniä). I wonder how she new it wasn't booze Mom was given??
"The days are long but the years are short."
That is such a good sentence, I wish I had come up with it. As a vet nurse I sometimes work around the clock, but where on earth have 26 years gone?
It appears that child-rearing advice and customer service are about one and the same thing: "Acknowledge their feelings" (when they are angry or sad). I'm afraid I'm not always very good at this.
Traditions. I'm glad she mentiones the downside of family traditions - a source of guilt, resentment, anger and disappointment. I think there is no point to hang onto the same old ways just because it's a tradition if nobody likes them in the end.
She writes how important it is to keep the grandparents updated on their grandchildrens' achievements. Hm. I still lived at home when my brother's family was living in France prior skype, e-mail or SMS. My sister-in-law has this tiny, even handwriting which is actually very hard to read and she used to send us pages after pages of boring stories about my nephews (just toddlers back then). It obviously never crossed her mind that none of us wanted to know what they ate and who had sneezed and it was such a pain to struggle with her handwriting as well.
Sometimes Gretchen is SO American: No pumpkin on Halloweed = Mummy Malpractice! Gaa!

May themes: Find more fun. Take time to be silly. Go off a path. Start a collection.
This is not hard, I'm almost always silly.
The writer started a literary group for adults reading children's books. I also like children's books and have saved my favourites. I very seldom read them as there is so much else I want to read (Mom, 87, just said that she would have to have three more lives to be able to read all the books she wanted. That's kind of sad), but they are there just in case.
In the beginning of the year the writer got rif of everything unnecessary and useless in her household and in May she wanted to start a collection and cause a small clutter. I'm glad I didn't start doing these things while reading, I would have been mighty angry having thrown away all my precious "things". But perhaps having a small clutter is better than an enourmous clutter and just an organized bookshelf..??
Clutter clearance help. My sister-in-law (the same with the neat-looking but unreadable handwriting) once did this with me when I was a teen and how I hated her cold-bloodedly asking if I was still going to use this or that and for what. First of all she made me feel stupid for having kept all sorts of silly things and secondly she used my embarrasment to throw away my precious things. So however tempting Gretchen makes this sound I won't be fooled twice.
June. Remember birthdays. Be generous.Show up. Don't gossip. Make three new friends.
I see so many people at work that I treasure my spare time when I can be alone. The book says that having strong social bonds is probably the most meaningful contributor to happiness. Hmm. I thought I was happy the way things are.
Doing good deeds for others can also cause negative feedback. I remember I wasn't very old when my parents told me that people who should be the most thankful for somebody often turn against that person. That people do not handle gratitute well if they have no means of returning the favour. That's kind of sad and unfortunate, but often times it has proven to be true. But small scale generosity is fun.
Remembering birthdays has been easy for me and I love to send cards, also for no particular reason. I could open a card shop any day...
I didn't know that Woody Allen was into dog shows, but "80 per cent of success is showing up" is a pretty acurate estimation.
Making three new friends sounds a bit calculated and what does she do at the end of the month? Drop them? Or should we begin this with defining a friend? Three new aquintances would not be a hard task, but those I call friends aren't just Facebook friends (I'm not in the Facebook, by the way). She also said that friends are energizing; some are, some seem to draw all energy from you.
The part about facial paralysis and relationships was so true. I had a total facial paralysis in 1997 and people I didn't know just ignored me when I tried to talk to them as my face was "wooden" and I had difficulties producing words. Perhaps they thought I had had several too many. I've also noticed that I have difficulties communicating with a friend who has (probably) had a facelift and nowadays has this permanent rigid half-smile / half-grin. It's very difficult to read her face as the first impression always is that she is disgusted.
Gretchen gives all this advice on how to be positive, look accessible and warm, nod, lean forward and be interested in what other people say. Where does the line goes between being positive and phoney? If that's not me, should I still keep doing it?
What? No gossip? And yet she tells us to have more fun??!?
July. The eternal question: Can money buy happiness? Not alone. The daughter of the richest man in Finland was interviewed last autumn and she said they had everything money could buy, but she would have wanted to spend more time with her dad who was never at home. My parents worked at home and I sometimes wished they would leave the house for more than just a couple of hours so I could be alone.
I've always had enough money to meet my needs, but on the other hand I'm mean by nature. I don't have kids, wear make-up, smoke or drink and I hate to buy new clothes or shoes. I buy most books second hand, but also that has decreased with bookcrossing. I did go for a shopping-spree a few weeks ago in Trowbridge, Wiltshire: I had never seen so many charity shops, nearly twenty, in the middle of the town, practically next to each other. It was great to buy books and discount Christmas cards knowing you are doing it for a good cause!
I have been dragged all around Paris in the search of long lacy socks and cutie bras by a maximizer friend. She wanted the best quality and lowest price; so having made our tour once we had to go back to the shop which had the best offer. Never again!

Gosh, this is going to be the longest series of journals ever, but this lady says so many things I want to comment.
August: Read memoirs of catastrophe. I do admit there are times when I might gulp several gloomy memoirs or biographies in a row, but then I definately need something lighter and more positive reading. Different books for different moods. Having read other BCer's journals there seems to have been a time in almost everyone's youth when they've read loads about the holocaust. I did, too, I even travelled to Anne Frank's House and Auschwitz. But when that cup was full, I didn't want to go back to that subject for decades. I still have some unread holocaust books on my shelf and hadn't even thought of them for years, but then somebody wished for one and I decided to read it first. It was actually a very good book, but again I have no immediate need to read others of that topic.
For me reading about other people's misfortunes didn't really make me value the simple pleasures of life. It was still very remote. Horrible things happen to other people, often in different countries or cultures. Old people get sick and die. It was when I had a neurological "could be very serious" illness that I realized how fragile we are, how easily our lives can be turned upside down and that even I could be deprived of many things we take for granted. And if that happens, the world does not come to an end. Everybody else around you carries on like before, complains about a bus being late or somebody not queueing when they should have. The moral of the story was "Carpe Diem". You should do things you want to do now, not "one day". For a few years I remembered to be greatful of simple things and in general put things in perspective, travel to places I definately wanted to see and do things I wanted to do, but amazingly soon one lulls into the false security. I think everybody should have a false alarm of being seriously ill, just long enough to really think things over and realize what they may lose and what their real values in life are, what and who are important and how they want to spend their time. And how not to make mountains out of molehills. I think no amount of reading would have gotten me into my senses the way personal experience did. Like no film or book about Auschwitz had made me realize the number of individuals, ordinary people like you and me, the way seeing the rooms full of suitcases, spectacles and human hair did.

Three more months to go, hang in there!
September: "Returning from vacation made me appreciate my beloved library anew." I thought she meant her own private library, but no, something which was a block away. I've also just returned from a vacation and brought back some more books for MY beloved library.
Write a novel in a month - certainly NOT a project for me!
Making time was very easy when Finland moved to digi-TV-time already some years ago. I protested by not buying the wratched gadget and gosh how much more time I had on my hands. My reading time especially increased then - although you would not think so judging by this book! My biggest time thief is the Internet which I woved never to take home! Now that it's here I'm surfing around to the wee small hours almost on a daily basis, BC being one of the most used sites:(
Reading and making notes: I never made notes when reading, but BC changed all that. As I have to say something about a book I've just read I often make notes of the things I want to mention or point out - and which I'm sure I'd forget unless I put them down. This journal is overdoing it, but hey, if somebody makes Happiness a year-lasting project, I'm sure to have a thing or two comment.
October: As somebody who in the beginning seemed very open to try everything for the sake of her project she certainly knew very well what she didn't want to even try; like meditation or going into the nature. Perhaps solitude and the great outdoors are foreign to a true New Yorker. I love to borrow my workmate's summer cottage where I'm not likely to bump into another human being and where I can do a bit of weeding, culling of young trees and a bit of stonework (in Helsinki one always comes across abandoned pavement stones, left-overs from road work. Stone by stone I'm moving bits of Töölö, Ullanlinna or Kaivopuisto to the countryside).
Hey ho, finally I found the English name for Samu Sirkka = Jiminy Cricket! I have often called myself the Jiminy Cricket of the veterinary profession and lately also of the FCI (Fédération Cynologique Internationale).
Otherwise October was the bore of the book, I fell asleep so many times in October! Laughter yoga? At least I'm glad she didn't like it! But I'd like to have the name of her arts teacher, he made wonders!
November: Am I getting tired of this book / topic?
Give positive reviews. Well, if something really sucks and you want it to change, why not give it the review it deserves? But in general, in matters where it doesn't really matter except to the person who did it we all could say nicer things than we do.
Lord of the Dance: this clip is bound to make you happy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gHvATmUsSg

December. Booth camp perfect. Something I'm certainly not. I've never been good at keeping resolutions. And she is so energetic, too. But I might try some of the things she suggested, yet still be Me.
At last I've finished this book. Perfect timing, as tomorrow would have been Oppem's birthday. Oppem was a very generous bookcrosser, who made so many people happy. She hosted the BC Birthday Group last year and the amount birthday mail I received was amazing. Sadly Oppem past away last summer and this year's Birthday Group carries her name. We are supposed to release a book in her memory on her birthday and I think this is a perfect book for that purpose. Tomorrow is Sunday, so I can't actually post the book, but I'll pack it ready to go to somebody whom I tagged ages ago. I know she will be happy.

And she is! Happy! For about this book, and for getting it in Oppem's memory. I am also happy about these looong journal entries... I will read them first.. or maybe last, after finishing the book!

Hmm.. I wonder which was more interesting, the book or Kirjakko's journal entries? :)

I liked the book - a bit surprise maybe, because I am not big fan of selfhelp-type of books, although I try to read one once in a while.

For me I think the most effective adivice was "act the way I want to feel" because that works, at least to some extent. Also in negative way. If I feel miserable and don't want to feel better (believe me, that also happens!) I act the way which maximizes my misery and also makes people near me down. So I really should use this advice for being better!

The thing about singing in the morning. Sometimes, as a joke, I wake up my 15-yr daughter by singing Finnish children's song "aamulla herätys sängystä pois" and that really pisses her off. So maybe that is not to be used here in our household.

Getting to bed earlier: I really should!

Decluttering: doing it right now, I've been doing it for a while now and it does make me feel better.

Do a little bit every day: well, that I should do, I tend to let the house go all messy and only then clean it, not a day before.

All in all, this was a nice book and it did give me some ideas - I am not sure if reading it made me much happier person, but who know, maybe afterwards I realize that something from it has changed my life too.

And now this book will go to Piiku. Be happy!

( I am joining the 52 weeks releasing challenge with this book. The theme for this week will be happiness. I am happy for all the nice things happening this week - like Bookcrossing meeting in a couple of days, going to dentist to get my tooth finally fixed etc. And of course the book is all about happiness, so it matches the theme!)

The book is here, thank you Chania. I think I won't read kirjakko's journal entrys before finishing the book myself :)

I'm not going into details, but about three years ago I really started to think about my own happiness. So I already am a true believer in positive thinking (it's quite difficult sometimes though..), mindfulness and treating people as you want them to treat you. At the moment I'm in the decluttering phase, and it really feels good to donate old stuff to charity shop. But I have also learned to forgive myself, and not trying to be perfect. I'm not sure Gretchen really got that part, but the book was an interesting read anyway. Thank you Chania for giving it to me.

Sending to South Africa as wishlist surprise. Happy reading Snufkin81!

What a surprise! Thank you, Piiku! I look forward to this.

And thank you for the great John Lennon quote you included in the parcel:
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”