The Little Guide to Happiness: How to Smile Again [Paperback]

Michael Kevin Naselli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2002

Hey, It's me, the author. I'm smiling. And do you want to know why? It is because I am happy. And you can be happy too. I'm happy to bring you my new book, The Little Guide to Happiness. You want to be happy? Then what are you waiting for? Open this puppy up and begin reading!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mike Naselli is thirty-eight years old and at the time of this printing resides in Syracuse, New York. His hobbies include video games and movies. He has a cat he loves and a girlfriend he adores.

Product Details

• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse; Revised edition (October 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140332557X
• ISBN-13: 978-1403325570
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,678,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

126 of 136 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A sad little book, March 13, 2003

By 

Baron Berwyn "Erstwhile Saxon" (Northshield) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Little Guide to Happiness: How to Smile Again (Paperback)

The message of this diminutive tome, if there is one, is to always look for the positive. Therefore, I shall attempt to do so in this review.

In "The Little Guide to Happiness" Michael Naselli takes the essence of Anthony Robbins, Leo Buscaglia, Norman Vincent Peale and Barney the Dinosaur, and distills it into 68 generously spaced pages. The lessons brought forth in this book are those which have been promoted by self-help doyens for decades. Here, they are presented in a style which can be understood by even the least literate among us. The large typeface and double-spacing are particularly helpful to those of us with fading eyesight.

The author states on Page 2, "I didn't graduate with a degree in literature from some fancy smancy Ivy League college." This fact becomes readily apparent on Page 1. Among the minor annoyances in the writing style is the consistent misuse of "your" in place of "you're," as in "Cut out telling yourself your miserable." The text is liberally sprinkled with such duck-billed platitudes as "Be good to yourself," "Don't blame others," "Don't be crappy-be happy," and the ever popular "Hey, what do you want? Shakespeare?"

The copy I received was missing two pages, but this is the fault of the printer, not the author. What is the fault of the author is that the absence of these pages was barely noticeable, and I feel the book would have been much improved if a few more leaves had left.

Now I must say that this book is not totally without merit. But I found that the primary value in this treatise, aside from gerbil bedding, lies not in the 68 pages written by Michael Naselli, but in the 91 pages written by other people. Well over half the book consists entirely of inspirational quotations from such luminaries as George Orwell, George Burns, the notably prolific Anonymous, and someone credited as "Alfred Lord..." (I presume Tennyson, but it could just as well have been Newman.)

So, is this indeed a "Little Guide to Happiness?" Little, certainly, and one might find some happiness in the knowledge that the author's cat is well cared for. After reading this book, however, all I felt was a slight regret that I would never get those 20 minutes back again.

49 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars [...], November 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Little Guide to Happiness: How to Smile Again (Paperback)

I feel like such a sucker. Let me offer a word of advise for anyone considering buying this book. Go to a bookstore and glance through it there first (If you can find it - Apparently it is sold exclusively online. What is the reason for this? Well, it really stinks). The prose reads as if it were written by a fourth-grader hopped up on sugar and children's TV and the entire book is filled with spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. The cloying, syrupy thoughts are rambling and convoluted. I closed this book thinking the author was huckster, and I, a complete idiot for having bought it.

47 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I closed this book feeling depressed, May 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Little Guide to Happiness: How to Smile Again (Paperback)

I really wanted to like this book. I bought it with the hope and expectation that it would be inspirational, fun, kismet...etal. Instead, I found myself feeling annoyed at and sorry for this author. How could anyone let something with their name on it, that is as convoluted and poorly written as this, be printed without someone (anyone) saying, "Um, you might want to revise here". There are the seeds of some sort of message between the lines. And they can quite possibly be deciphered (with some effort on the part of the reader) from the 30 or so pages of text that comprise this entire essay, but they are muddled and buried in unpleasantness and veiled criticisms.

I didn't believe that this man is at all happy. The passive-aggressive tenor of the writer's voice is camouflaged as "folksy wisdom" and can be quite jarring. At first, that very voice convinced me to ignore the many spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors as they were perhaps, part of the writer's chosen persona. Yet, the pronounced resentment of people with education, expertise in real psychology or actual knowledge is off-putting and takes away from any potentially positive message.