I loved the concept of this book: look back at past conceptions of how best to live to get perspective on how arbitrary some of out current proscriptions are. Lots of delicious rebellion against modern mores: why not take more drugs, avoid strenuous exercise, stop trying to "eat clean" and be so productive all the time? It might just make you happier. However, the execution didn't live up to the promise; I wanted more examples and less hand-waving. Some of the theoretical links were sketchy in the extreme. Felt dated at 13 years old, which lends credence to her argument about the relentless churn of fashion. Someone needs to apply this analysis to the matter of gluten! ( )

“Money Can’t Buy Happiness” Um… YES IT CAN. Money can buy a safe place to live, food, clothing, healthcare, security for your family… Money means you can pay for an education and not have to work some soul-killing, back-breaking job that kills you by 40, and you have time to sit around and read a book like this. See? HAPPY

This book points out how much ridiculous bull our society puts out there. You should be ashamed of what you eat, you should be ashamed of how much you weigh, of how you have sex… this drug is good to take, but *that* drug with the same effect is bad to take. I’m sure many people will not like this book because it points out the fool’s gold in their sacred cows, but I wish we as a society would talk more about these things.

It makes me happy to see the dimply layer of cellulite on my thighs. There. I admitted it.
Even so, I feel compelled to justify it because of all the messages I’ve been fed throughout my life that fat is bad.
( )

I have read this writer before, and enjoyed her work. But this book is a strange melange of self-help book, inspirational talk of the type that bosses insist on subjecting you to year after annoying year, and a screed against people who think they know what happiness is. There is an underlying anti-intellectual thread while throwing around the big names of philosophy by an intellectual who has read and studied all of that. Overall, not satisfying, so I cut it short. As I've said before, life's too short to read bad books.

I read the first 8 or 10 pages and thought everything she said was trite and disagreed with almost all of her statements (which all seemed to be presented as statements of fact and not opinion).

That’s not really giving it much of a chance, so maybe I’ll try again later.

Unable to get beyond doubt, Hecht ends up advocating nothing much. ( )