Happiness Book

I bought this book on a whim. It was hardback, categorized under "Psychology" and it had its price dropped from $24 to 9 leva (which is about $4.50) I liked its name and cover so I took it. Later on, I remembered the last time I did that: I was unpleasantly surprised by a chick-lit with no literary value whatsoever. The sole reason I chose that book was its title - "Wish Me Sunflowers", which, I later discovered, was a huge mistranslation. (Really, what does this have to do with "Remember Me"?!) Thinking about that experience, I felt increasingly regretful about buying "Happiness".

The book started off as a purely entertaining read - and it did its job quite well. It was getting ever more interesting, and despite its size, I started carrying it around with me and read it whenever the bus was empty enough for me to open a book.

"Happiness" had its unexpectedly wise message: bliss isn't always the right choice. Life's made out of misery as well as happiness, it has its flights and falls, emotions make it interesting and real. It's not worth living in pure perfection. Life isn't really supposed to be devoid of sadness, indignation, anxiousness and despair. It should be a journey, a constant path towards our goals, a struggle and a battle. Our existence should be scattered with bitter tears and sincere laughter, powerful love and peeving hate, drunken dances and everyday meaningless conversations.

Nobody said it was easy. It should never be too easy. We've got to have the chance to take decisions and make mistakes in order to feel truly alive. It sounds pretty logical considering people's tendency to overcomplicate everything, to overreact and strive for misery.

The reason I loved this book is that there is much to learn from it, there's lots of room left for me to think, funny moments to laugh about, and an imperfect love story to relieve the uneasiness from my own relationships. It's actually far better than any sugar-coated account of how impeccably beautiful life is. I must admit that, as prone as I am to enjoying such ideas or creating them in my own mind. Happiness, by definition, is what we're all looking for. Not what we achieve and experience every single day. It's far more important to fight, to love, to rise up to the challenge, to feel, to live.