Clif's Book World

This study of how our minds work provides an interesting insight into the human condition. The book examines why we are not very good at achieving happiness even though we're very good at imagining scenarios of our future happiness. The book's narrative unfolds like a psychological detective story about the mystery of why there is so much pursuit of happiness but so little satisfaction at achieving happiness. After all, pursuit of happiness must be very important to us since it is one of the inalienable rights referenced in the U.S Declaration of Independence. Almost all reviews of this book note that this is not a "how to" book as inferred by the title. My thought is that this may indeed be a better "how to" book than most books the claim to explain "how to" achieve happiness. After all, isn't knowing one's self the first step toward such a goal? And what better way to know one's self than to understand the workings of the human brain. The first part of this book reminded me some of the material covered in the book, Animals In Translation by Temple Grandin (see my review).