Overall this book is a good presentation of the ideas of positive psychology from the father of positive psychology. As much as I hate it when academicians do this, I wish that Seligman had collaborated with an established author. I think the book would have benefitted in both focus and in organization. As it is, the reputation Seligman has for narcissism comes through and affects my reading of most of his anecdotes. Why does Seligman have to include how he saved Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's life as his introduction to the concept of flow? Why does he include a story about how he was the featured guest at a yacht club when he posits that increasing complexity and goodness are the motivating forces behind evolution? Seligman's blatant self promotion also bothered me. He never passed up an opportunity to get people to go on his website or to recommend Learned Optimism.

Those things said, the book provides an excellent jumping off point from which to identify one's strengths and use these to increase involvement in pleasures, gratifications, and meaning. The quizzes are kind of fun, and the "happiness formula" is a useful way to conceptualize one's experience of positive emotion.