What am I Reading?
My friend and fellow blogger Social Citizen tagged me with the following challenge:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.
I thought this one might be harmless enough, so I’m going to respond, but not tag others. That’s probably very bad luck, but I’m good with that!
It just so happens that I’m currently reading Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. I’ve had it for a while, but just getting around to starting it. I’m not up to page 123 yet, so it was exciting for me to see that in my edition, page 123 is the start of Chapter 6, The Future is Now. It begins by talking about the post-Atomic futurism of the 1950s. The 5th-7th sentence read:
You will also notice that some things are missing. The men don’t carry babies, the women don’t carry briefcases, the children don’t have pierced eyebrows or nipples, and the mice go squeak instead of click. There are no skate-boarders or panhandlers, no smartphone or smartdrinks, no spandex, latex, Gore-Tex, Amex, FedEx, or Wal-Mart.
It’s a very interesting book that does a great job of examining the wiring of the human brain and why we are so bad at predicting what will make us happy. If you don’t have time to read the book, you can take 20 minutes to watch Gilbert’s talk at TED:
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Hi Maria,
I read this book about 3 months ago and found it informative and fun. It made me think about how little we understand how to make ourselves happy, and how important it is to be willing to pursue a variety of experiences, even those you think won’t be for you since, as the book explains, what we believe we might not like might in fact be just what we need.
ps. I just read your 30 days on $30 dollars post too. Fascinating and well done for completing it successfully!
@Steve – great point about pursuing things you think you won’t like. The whole point of the book is that we are BAD at figuring out how to bring ourselves more happiness.
I know I personally struggle with getting motivated to go out to concerts, plays, etc. and am often tempted to “stay in.” However, when I actually get off my behind and go out, I always have a great time and experience.
That’s a pretty good example of how bad we are at this whole happiness thing.