Reading. II term. 8 form \ Контроль читання. 2 семестр. 8 клас

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BOOK Reviews

THE ANTIDOTE: HAPPINESS FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN’T STAND POSITIVE THINKING

by Oliver Burkeman

Is your life disappointing? Does that make you feel depressed? If you answered ‘yes’ to those two questions, what can you do to find happiness? The answers to these questions can be worth their weight in gold – last year, people spent almost $11 billion on ‘self-help’ books. These books promise to make us more confident, more sociable and more successful. They tell us that all we really need to find love and achieve our goals is a positive attitude.

If you are amused by promises like these, then Oliver Burkeman’s book The Antidote might just be for you. Burkeman has travelled the world in search of happiness and he has found it in some very unusual places. For example, he meets poor people in Africa who seem to be happier than some wealthy people he knows in London. For Burkeman, this shows us that people who do not own very much cannot worry about losing it. In other words, having a lot of things can add a lot of stress to our lives. Of course he is not saying that poor people in Africa have an easy life. Instead, Burkeman uses this example to talk about ‘negative paths’.

A ‘negative path’ is important for a satisfying life. He suggests that we need to remind ourselves that bad things happen and that we should learn to live with them. True happiness – if it exists – must include both positive and negative experiences. A complete life should be one that knows hate as well as love and illness as well as health.

In my favourite part of the book, Burkeman takes us to a small village in Mexico on the Day of the Dead. The Day of the Dead is a festival that celebrates everyone who has died. However, it is not a sad festival at all, but a colourful party for friends and family. According to Burkeman, we need events like this to remember why we should be happy more often. The Antidote is an interesting book that has the ability to make you feel that happiness really is possible.

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