“A Little Book of Happiness is a miscellany for all seasons, one to cherish and to share.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
In an age of self help books and quick solutions, this is one of those books that will go down well. Ruskin Bond has collected his favourite quotes on happiness and sources of unhappiness and brought them together in this neat little book which makes for a great birthday present or a gift for a friend who is feeling low or even something to curl up with on a rainy day.
The book answers quite a few problems in its range – for example it tells you not to worry if you are not happy and points out that hunting for happiness is self defeating. On the flip side it also says that being happy is easy – so easy that you might not even realise when you are happy.
You will stumble on a Sylvia Plath quote which will make you wonder. Or you will find little snippets from Ruskin Bond himself on how he was soothed by the scent of frying onions – which might not be to everyone’s taste, since that is a personal quirk – or cheered by a mynah’s chirrup. The slim book has quite a collection from the artists and writers that Bond admires. In between are pages for notes where you can put down other quotes that catch your attention so that the collection becomes a truly personal, interactive one. And at the end of it you might even decide that happiness is not quite the word you are looking for.
Reviewed by:
Anjana Basu
Added 26th June 2016
