Happier at Home

I really like Gretchen Rubin and her quest for self perfection. I vacillate between being inspired by her detailed, mindful thoughts of how to make tiny behavior changes to make life better (an approach that suits me as well) and being totally stressed by all the things she discovers she should be doing (and apparently successfully adopts as new habits!) that I am not doing. I really identified her quest to engage with her personal space (like home decoration stuff) rather than to follow her instinct of just not bothering. But then I get stressed out thinking about how I can improve my own space/life. Self help lit is like this as a rule I think, kind of enlightening but kind of stressful. So maybe I'll just shift back to mystery and fantasy.

The library's kindle version of this book was corrupted and was ruining my kindle reading experience (super slow) so I actually gave up about 40% through the book. But I think I got enough from it.

I first read this book in November 2012, and here I am over three years later rereading it. This is the kind of book that makes more sense to read when you feel more settled. So many of Gretchen's thought processes and plans for each month resonated with me, and I'm excited to work on upping the game with my own happiness at home.

I ended up with a library book I wanted to finish and spin around. And at about 250 pages it was a quick read: Happier at Home, by Gretchen Rubin.

Sadly, I found it lacking. It's not written for me. It's about precisely what it sounds like: how to be happier in your home. Useful for those of us in places melting down with infections right now.

But I don't like the tone. She's a rich white woman who went to Yale and lives in New York with two kids and a husband. She gets to write books all day after having a successful law career at the top levels of the Supreme Court.

She basically puts all her eggs in family, kids, having the “right amount” of no doubt expensive possessions and making time for things like acupuncture.

I'm a gay man in Indiana who can't have kids, makes nowhere near that kind of money, has no family, and hates spending money.

Like I said, this book just wasn't written for me.