The Best Books of 2011

Apologies for the hiatus!  I've been going through a bit of a life upheaval lately -- another move (!) -- and so I haven't had a chance to sit and properly blog.  I have been reading, though, and more posts will be coming.

But first, though it's now a bit dated, I wanted to recap my favorites from 2011.  It was a year of great reading, but three books stood out: 

1. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell: Hands down, the best book I read last year.  It's nearly impossible to describe the book, other than as a tale of six interconnected stories spanning hundreds of years.  I am slightly nervous about the movie, so I would encourage everyone to read it prior to the movie's release.  As a disclaimer:  It took me about one hundred pages to really get into the book, but when I did, I fell hard.  Have patience.
2. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins:  Pulp fiction at its finest, I found it difficult to put down the books in this trilogy.  A friend noted that he thought the writing was juvenile - and perhaps it is - but it's also utterly addicting.  I thought that one of the more interesting aspects of the trilogy, though, was how it reflected our own society and values, particularly with the focus on reality television.  Panem et circenses. 
3. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin: Rubin's study into happiness inspired two posts, and lots of self-reflection on what makes people - and me - happy.  Specifically, it provided me with a framework to think about the different factors that influence my happiness (e.g., exercise, relationships), and launched an inner dialogue on how to maximize my happiness within those categories.  Again, a bit late, but I'd suggest it for anyone making New Year's Resolutions. 

And, with that, happy reading in 2012!  xo

Ambition and Happiness

One more post on The Happiness Project. Going back to the idea of the relationship between happiness and work, how does ambition fit in? The author doesn't have any conclusion on the relationship between ambition and happiness, and discusses it briefly:

There's a common belief that happiness and ambition are incompatible. Many ambitious people I've known seem eager to claim that they aren't happy, almost as a way to emphasize their zeal, in echo of Andrew Carnegie's observation "Show me a contented man, and I'll show you a failure."

Studies show that many creative, influential people in the arts and public life score above average in "neuroticism" (i.e., they have a greater propensity to experience negative emotions); this discontent arguably urges them to higher achievement. Other studies, however, show that people tend to think more flexibly and with more complexity when they're feeling happy.

Quite frankly, I'm not sure how I feel about this. A number of my friends and peers are people that I would characterize as 'ambitious' (even if they wouldn't necessarily describe themselves that way). But does that mean that they'll always be unhappy, striving for something more?

Perhaps the key is to find happiness in the struggle for higher achievement?

The Happiness Project

I missed the boat on New Year's Resolutions this year. Normally, it's quite a production: I sit down and spend several hours of navel-gazing, trying to figure out what I learned over the past year and what I would like to change for the upcoming year. This year, I spent the holiday season traveling, and never had the opportunity for my annual journal entry.

Fast-forward two months, and I found myself at my local bookstore, searching for The Happiness Project. I had heard about the book courtesy of a few legal blogs: it's authored by a former lawyer, who left her law firm to become a writer. It was a little embarrassing to find myself in the Self-Help section, so I bought the book to read from the luxury of my couch.

And, in a way, it made me think of the 2011 resolutions that never happened. It might seem indulgent -- who spends a year devoted to the pursuit of happiness? -- but the author's journey made me think about my own, and what I can change to make myself, well, happier. It's also an amalgam of research studies; although, like Gladwell in Blink, she cherry-picks research studies that support her hypotheses.

One of the parts that resonated most, though, was when offered the following anecdote:

"Because work is so crucial to happiness, another person's happiness project might well focus on choosing the right work. I, however, had already been through a major happiness quest career shift. I'd started out in law, and I'd had a great experience. But when my clerkship with Justice O'Connor drew to a close, I couldn't figure out what job I wanted next.

During this time, I visited the apartment of a friend who was in graduate school studying education, and I noticed several thick textbooks lying around her living room.

"Is this what they make you read for your program?" I asked, idly flipping through the dense, dull pages.

"Yes," she said, "but that's what I read in my spare time, anyhow."

For some reason, that casual answer shocked me to attention. What did I do in my spare time? I asked myself. As much as I liked clerking, I never spent one second more on legal subjects than I had to."

She later continues:

"My ambition, however, was also a factor in leaving the law. I'd become convinced that passion was a critical factor in professional success. People who love their work bring an intensity and enthusiasm that's impossible to match through sheer diligence. I could see that in my co-clerks at the Supreme Court: they read law journals for fun, they talked about cases during their lunch hours, they felt energized by their efforts. I didn't.

Enthusiasm is more important to master than innate ability, it turns out, because the single most important element in developing an expertise is your willingness to practice. Therefore, career experts argue, you're better off pursuing a profession that come easily and that you love, because that's where you'll be more eager to practice and thereby earn a competitive advantage."

It makes sense -- which then leads to the next question: How do you discover your passion?