Happiness Is a Serious Problem by Dennis Prager
Paperback, 192 Pages, Published 1998 by HarperCollins, Regan Books Harper Perennial Ed Edition
$14.95 USD
ISBN-10: 0060987359
ISBN-13: 9780060987350
Rating: 
In this distinctive blend of moral philosophy and self-help, author and talk-radio host Dennis Prager declares that we are all actually have an obligation to be happy, why?
Happiness is an obligation to you and to others
We not only have a right to be happy, we have an obligation to be happy. Our happiness has an effect on our own lives and the lives of everyone around us, it imparts on us and them a positive environment in which to thrive and to be happy themselves.
Attaining that happiness won’t be easy, though, to Prager, it requires a ongoing process of counting your blessings and giving up any expectations that life is supposed to be wonderful. “Can we decide to be satisfied with what we have?” he asks. “A poor man who can make himself satisfied with his portion will be happier than a wealthy man who does not allow himself to be satisfied.”
This is the repair manual we should have been handed at birth
People when asked about their most cherished values in life; happiness is always at the top of their list. However, unhappiness does not seem to be the exceptional order to be happy, we first have to battle ourselves.
Prager resonates many conservative political commentators in complaining that too many people today see themselves as victims; he yields that the only way to achieve your desires is to take responsibility for your life rather than blaming other people.
Whether or not you agree with that view, if you’re willing to put some thought and action into achieving a happier viewpoint, you will find plenty to consider in Happiness Is a Serious Problem.
Customer Reviews
If you wonder why you’re unhappy, read this book by Mark Landsbaum (Diamond Bar, CA USA)
Customers Rating: 
Customers Rating:
“Dennis Prager, a devout Jew, helped bring me to Christ through years of listening to his radio commentaries and reading his books and essays. His clear-thinking and insight to man’s eternal dilemma can help anyone searching for meaning in his life, and for a personal relationship with God.
But Mr. Prager’s book on happiness does us all a service while we spend our time here on earth, muddling through the complexities of every day life.
One of the keys to happiness, Mr. Prager rightly suggests, is that expectations inevitably result in unhappiness. This is a wonderful insight to why so many today are frustrated, angry and unhappy in a society that touts the entitlement mindset, the thinking that we are automatically entitled to things, including happiness.
If you can set aside your expectations suddenly everything good that enters your life becomes a blessing. What do you appreciate more, the gift you’ve demanded or the one you didn’t expect?
Hang on to your expectations and you can expect to be dissatisfied when they aren’t met, and unappreciative when they do come true – after all, you expected to get it and felt that you deserved it, so why should you appreciate it?
Integral to happiness is appreciation. Unappreciative people are simply unhappy people. They are people who expect life to cater to them, so consequently are bitter when it doesn’t and unappreciative when it does.
This book should be required reading in all schools, particularly on college campuses where so many expect life to cater to them. But it applies equally well to all ages.
Buy this book for anyone you’d like to help find happiness. “
Wonderful, thought-provoking; a MUST read for everyone by J. Lizzi (Costa Mesa, CA)
Customers Rating:
Customers Rating:
Whether or not you are a fan of Dennis Prager’s talk shows, a half-hour with this book will prove to you that, not only can this man think, but he has an incomparable gift for elucidating one of life’s key preoccupations: the trials and tribulations associated with one’s quest for happiness. For me, this book is not so much of a “repair manual,” as it is one of the most insightful, succinctly written books on how happiness is linked to human nature, philosophy, morals, temperament and values.
Mr. Prager writes: “The greatest battle for happiness is with our own nature.” If we can look inward and understand our drives and the intrinsic characteristics of what it means to be human, we then can use our intellect, spirituality and relationships with others to develop a stronger affinity for happiness. Or, perhaps, create in happiness an affinity for us.
The author divides the book into three parts consisting of thirty-one chapters. If read from front to back, the book flows nicely from “Premises” to “Major Obstacles…” to “Attitudes and Behaviors That are Essential to Happiness.” What I especially like is that the individual chapters stand alone, and are great for highlighting the author’s views on very specific issues and problems. The most interesting ones deal with the dilemma between happiness and fun, the problems with expectations, and the preponderance of victimhood in today’s world. Prager has some profound views on these, and many other topics. He makes you think.
Overall, “Happiness…” turned out to be enlightening and quite easy to read (you won’t need a dictionary by your side). I’d rank it at the top of my list (also check out “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”) of books dealing with life’s disappointments and successes, emotion and human nature.
How can you not like it by Chris Conkling (Saugus, CA United States)
Customers Rating: 
Customers Rating:
“As I read the few negative reviews of this book, the critics all seem to be commenting about Dennis the radio talk show host (whom they may disagree with on some political issue or another), not the contents of this book. The weakness of the book: It is based on common sense and not backed up by thousands of clinical studies to verify up each and every claim; thus at times, it seems a little surface and simplistic. The strength of this book: It is based on common sense and not backed up by thousands of clinical studies to verify up each and every claim; thus it is void of a thousand qualifying “but sometimes…” and instead is simple, clear and to the point. Just as we say, on reading an insightful movie review, “that makes perfect sense; that’s exactly what I’ve always felt but just didn’t know how to put it into words quite so clearly,” so most people will say after reading each chapter: Yes, exactly, someone’s finally put it into words! Congratulations”
Leave a Review of this book
Children’s Spiritual Books
Healing & Reiki Books
Meditation Books
Motivational Books
Science & Spirituality
Spiritual Growth Books
Spirit & Paranormal Books
Spirituality For Beginners
