In Friends Series 2, Episode 19 (The One Where Eddie Won't Go), Monica and Pheobe introduce Rachel to a book: "Be Your Own Windkeeper". Rachel's first impression on hearing of the book is that it's cool and that it "sounds kinda like the Hobbit", but after reading it through, she is deeply and personally affected. "This book could have been called, 'Be Your Own Windkeeper Rachel'!" she gasps.
Now I've heard about some real books being regarded with the same level of awe, but I've never read one. For example, Pirsig's, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" was deemed profound by several reviewers, but I never saw it. I can't remember getting much past the surface narrative. To be honest, I'm not sure I even finished it.
It's not that I've never read books that "blew my mind" in some way. At an early age I devoured books, and loved them. To this day I wish I could still extract from Enid Blyton's "The Enchanted Wood" or "Five Go Off In A Caravan" the joy I experienced from reading them as a child. In more recent years, most of my reading has been non-fiction, but I can get carried away by that just as much as by stories. I literally, in the car on my own, said "wow", out loud, as I began to get to grips with quantum entanglement in Brian Greene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos" (the audio, by the way; I wasn't reading while driving!). And I could feel, in my chest, the desire growing to go study number theory as I finished "Fermat's Last Theorem" by Singh. And who wouldn't want to be, in quick succcession, a paleontologist, super novae finder, vulcanologist, and physicist, on reading Bill Bryson's Most Awesome "A Short History of Nearly Everything".
But while those were all breathtaking, gobsmacking, and jaw dropping, that's all they were.
The book I have just finished, on the other hand, is one of a very few on which I'd bestow that adjective to end all book adjectives. "The Happiness Hypothesis", by Jonathan Haidt, is important. It could have been called, "The Happiness Hypothesis Tommy!".
Haidt is a Jew, and atheist (he mentions both himself, and with good reason I think -- see later), and an associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, specializing in the psychology of morality. His book is the result of a range of studies, by him and his students, and drawing on many more, covering ten ideas pertaining to human happiness and wellbeing that share the following two characteristics:
- They are found repeated across various religious and philosophical traditions in the three great areas of classical thought: India, China, and the Mediterranean.
- They find backing in modern science
I'm going to leave it pretty much at that. This is not a book review, but rather a book pointing-out. It's entirely possible -- no, probable -- that the impact of such subjects is a function not only of what's being read but also of who is reading. As I say, I never "got" Pirsig. You may not get Haidt.
But read the book.
On that note, a few of words of advice.
To the religiously fundamental -- to those for whom the animals really did go in two by two -- don't force yourself to put away that position (I kow you can't, I've been there); just try to listen past the fact that he's an atheist.
To the hard-line atheist -- you Dawkins luvrs you :-) -- don't worry if you balk (you can't help it, it's OK) at this particular atheist breaking ranks and showing an appreciation for religion; just remember that he really is an atheist, and isn't positing some kind of non-science
To the liberals, and the conservatives -- oh just read the damn book and stop arguing. Or if you don't have time to read, here's a video of Haidt (dealing with only a tiny piece of the book's thesis) that you may find provoking (thought-or-other-wise).