I read this book because I wanted to join a book club, and this was the next book on the list. Stumbling on Happiness was billed as a Freakonomics-type book that would enlighten me to how the brain works. Wrong. Though Daniel Gilbert has a great sense of humor, and is able to synthesize complex psychological studies into laymen's terms, I just couldn't get into this book. There were a few interesting segments about perception of happiness and how humans are the only species that think about the future - but for the most part, I found that Gilbert rambled on and on and gave way to many examples for each topic. Skip this one.
I did get a new favorite quote though: "If we adhere to the standards of perfection in all of our endeavors, we are left with nothing but mathematics and the White Album." Daniel Gilbert - how did you know that I love both math and the Beatles?!
Daniel Gilbert is a professor at Harvard - with his humor, I bet his classes are a blast!
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