I’m a huge fan of book groups, and I’m in three, myself. In two of my book groups, we read children’s literature — the first group got so large that we had to close it, so I started another one. I’m also in a group in which we read adult fiction or nonfiction. I think joining or starting a group is an excellent engine of happiness, and a book group is one of the most popular organizing principles for a group.
If I do say so myself, I think The Happiness Project would make a good choice for book groups. There’s a lot to talk about, whether or not you agree with my approach; in fact, if you disagree with my approach, you have even more to talk about.
If you’re in a book group and think that you’d encourage your group to choose The Happiness Project , I’d love to hear from you. You can’t know for sure, of course, until you actually see the book, and reading the book is very different from reading the blog, but if you’re a blog reader who wants to suggest the book for your book group, please drop me a note.
Why? I’m working on a reading-group guide, and I want to be able to send it to you. Also, I’ll give away a certain number of free early copies of the book, when it’s ready, and I’ll choose randomly from these e-mails to send out what supplies I get.
This is on the honor system. If you’re a member of a book group, and you sincerely believe you might be inclined to recommend the book to your group …
- E-mail me at gretchenrubin1 [at] gmail.com (don’t forget the “1”) with the message “book group.”
- Include your name and address if you’d like to be eligible for a free book.
- If you’re willing, I’d love to get a brief description of your group: how many members, what kind of books you read, etc. No particular reason, I’m just curious about book groups.
I feel a little sheepish about this post, because I don’t want to seem to be doing too much self-promotion, but — there it is!
* Yes, Delia is a good friend of mine, but I’d read her blog RealDelia — “finding yourself in adulthood” — even if I didn’t know her.
* If you’re interested in starting your own happiness project, check out the Happiness Project Toolbox . Lots of great tools there—plus, you can see what other people are doing, which is addictive.
