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Happiness by Design

Finding Pleasure and Purpose in Everyday Life

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Happiness by Design

By: Paul Dolan
Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
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About this listen

Paul Dolan shows us how to find pleasure and purpose in everyday life.

As a professor of behavioural science at the London School of Economics, Dolan conducts original research into the measurement of happiness and its causes and consequences, including the effects of our behaviour. Here he creates a new outlook on the pursuit of happiness - it's not just how you feel, it's how you act.

Happiness by Design shows that being happier requires us to actively redesign our immediate environment. Enough has been written on how to think happy. Happiness by Design is about how to behave happy and how to incorporate the most recent research findings into our everyday lives.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our desktop site.

©2014 Paul Dolan (P)2014 Penguin Random House LLC Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Sociology

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Critic reviews

"Few books change one's life; in 48 hours this has improved mine.... Anyone who wonders if they are living their lives as fully as they might will find ideas worth thinking about in this engaging, persuasive book." ( The Sunday Times)
"Dolan makes a persuasive case that happiness might really be simple. His book is a powerful reminder not to get caught up in overthinking things, but to focus instead on maximising what actually delivers joy...and most of us would benefit from listening to him." ( The Guardian)
All stars
Most relevant  
Good book for some self reflection. I enjoyed listening whilst out walking. Would highly recommend.

A very good book

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I enjoyed this book. It's a great way to start the New year really something like this. the author provides a very simple yet effective way to make tweaks in the way that you approach your thoughts and your actions such that you ultimately arrived at a thoughtful view of what happiness means to you full stop

A very well researched book with practical advice

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Despite other people's comments I found the narration perfectly fine, the book is really interesting and I'd recommend. Only 4 stars. Because it references a pdf/other material that isn't available on the audio book I'm listening to so disappointing that the physical book is clearly better than the audio. If we can get the pdf then it would be 5 stars.

Narration good missing pdf though

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This is a superb book which I would recommend strongly to others, but the reader was the worst I have ever listened to. There were American pronunciations which made me cringe, but worse than that this reader was dreadful. He put stress in the wrong places and his performance skills were so weak that it amazes me that he was given this ( or any) gig. The author should be worried because this reader will turn listeners away from the brilliant content. I would ideally have given no stars for the performance but I was not permitted to do so. One star is way too generous and does not reflect my assessment of this sub standard reading.

Great book; terrible reader!

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Great book that stands the test of time. It would have been better if Paul Dolan had read it x

Great book but irritating narrator

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Excellent book that helps you understand what it means to be happy in a very realistic and relatable way.

Understanding Happiness

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I enjoyed the topic and really struggled with the narrator. It sounded like he didn't really understand what he was reading. The intonation was a bit off.

Interesting topic, bad narrator

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What did you like most about Happiness by Design?

Some interesting ideas that I will apply to my life. I believe there are PDF documents I can use although I haven't worked out how to find them yet.

Would you be willing to try another book from Paul Dolan? Why or why not?

Yes. Although I had to listen to this twice as I didn't enjoy it the first time around, mainly due to the dull narration.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Jonathan Cowley?

The author himself

Any additional comments?

This is an instance where I would have probably enjoyed the written form of the book rather than it being narrated by someone other than the author, and so unsympathetically.

Interesting content but read in an uninspiring way

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Lots of good ideas and detail about current happiness research are included in this book.
Unfortunately, my attention was distracted by the English narrator using lots of American pronunciations. Sorry but it grated with me.
Some audible books are easy to absorb whilst driving but I had to actually focus and not get distracted to take on board what was being said here.
Overall it’s well worth a read/listen and lots of take-home points are made.

Enjoyable!

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Read Hapiness Advantage instead, written by an actual psychologist. This book lacks all practical application and just has it the completly the wrong way around right from the subtitle. Ie its thoughts that change habits that chnage actions, not the other way around.

Misguided

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