Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. ( )

The Oatmeal always puts out great work. However, this book is in a different vein: less sarcasm, and a more powerful message. It was not what I expected, but that is a good thing! Despite it's short length, it really made me as a reader think about the concept of happiness as a social construct, and how we use the term in today's society. It confronts happiness as an illusion, and fights back against the way we try to place a binary nature upon it (happy vs unhappy, with nothing in between).

The illustrations were fantastic, as always, and I especially loved the comparison involving Pluto.

This brought me joy.
I really like/appreciate how Matthew Inman compares things. How we humans must define things (planets, journeys) try and nail them down to a type (happiness) when there's billions of possible varieties...
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I fall in and out of like with The Oatmeal. I used to read it fairly regularly, but now -- I blame the demise of Google Reader. Still I requested this on Netgalley because why not. And so I obtained a short fifty-page treatise on happy; more exactly on how not being happy doesn't imply being unhappy.

As a fundamentally sour, pessimistic person myself, it's a concept I've read about before -- happiness is some sort of nirvanic state where all needs, wants, and desires are met. But needs, wants, and desires are constantly shifting -- everything is nice and happy and perfect and then suddenly your car breaks down or you lose a pair of socks or a huge, multinational computing conglomerate decides that google reader isn't monetizable so shuts it down and how are you supposed to read your freakin' RSS feeds now, huh? Huh? Well f*$# you google.

Instead, be interested in things. Be creating things. Be learning things. Keep busy and maybe that nagging voice that lives in the back of my head will get distracted from criticizing and start to wonder what I'm doing, then watch, then contribute.

Not that I do what Inman does (me run fifty miles ha ha ha ha ha ha), but I write. I sew. I crochet. I duolingo. It isn't that I have to learn that that is enough, but rather that chasing the dream of happiness is not something my actions can necessarily create for my mind. So yay, random dude on the internet reinforcing my world view! Everyone agree with me!

How To Be Perfectly Unhappy by Matthew Inman went on sale October 31, 2017.

I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

I picked this up expecting a book on depression (my wheelhouse), but it's more of a philosophical examination of the flawed concept of "happiness," pursuing meaning even if it brings suffering along with joy, and finding things that give your life a sense of purpose. An ode to flow, if you will. Now quite my bag, but that's okay. 3.5 stars.

(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through NetGalley.) ( )