Books Like The Happiness Project
Introduction: What Readers Mean by “Books Like The Happiness Project”
When readers ask for books like The Happiness Project, they are rarely asking for another book of happiness theory. They are asking for something more specific: happiness treated as a practical experiment rather than a philosophy, a first-person account of trying things and reporting the results honestly, and small concrete actions the reader can copy. The Happiness Project (2009) has all three - Gretchen Rubin’s account of her year of testing the research on happiness in her own ordinary life - and the books that come closest are the ones that find their own way to the same combination.
This guide gathers the strongest readalikes, old and new, with honest content notes and a clear sense of what each book shares with the project and where it departs from it.
The First-Person Experiments
The books that come closest to The Happiness Project are the ones in which an author tests the ideas on themselves and reports the results.
10% Happier by Dan Harris (2014) is the essential companion: a skeptical news anchor who has a panic attack on live television, and who - against every instinct - begins testing meditation and mindfulness as experiments, reporting what works and what does not with a journalist’s honesty. It shares the happiness project’s form (a first-person experiment) and its refusal to be credulous, and it is the book for readers who want the skeptic’s version. Content note: clean and accessible; appropriate for readers from high school upward.
Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin (2015) is the essential companion from the same author: Rubin’s account of habit formation - the four tendencies, the strategies, the question of what actually makes habits stick - tested in her own life. It is the happiness project’s machinery made explicit, and it is the book for readers who loved the experiments and want the engine. Content note: clean and accessible; appropriate for any reader.
The Happiness Project’s own companions - Rubin’s follow-ups, including Happier at Home (2012) and Outer Order, Inner Calm (2019) - continue the same experiment in different rooms of the life, and readers who loved the first book usually want the whole series.
The Science Behind the Experiments
A second branch of the family is the research that the experiments are testing.
The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky (2007) is the essential research companion: a psychologist’s summary of the studies showing that roughly half of our happiness is set, and that the rest is trainable - through gratitude, kindness, relationships and specific practices the book lays out. It is the science behind the happiness project’s experiments, and it is the book that tells you which experiments are worth running. Content note: clean and accessible; appropriate for any reader.
The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor (2010) is the essential book about happiness and work: Achor’s argument, based on research at Harvard, that happiness is not the reward of success but its precondition - that the happy brain is more productive, creative and resilient. It is the happiness project’s claim translated into the language of the workplace. Content note: clean and accessible; appropriate for any reader.
Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert (2006) is the essential book about the mind’s errors: a psychologist’s account of the research showing how badly we predict what will make us happy. It is the counterweight to the experiment books: where Rubin runs the experiments, Gilbert shows why the imagination is such an unreliable guide - and why the experiments are necessary. Content note: clean and accessible; appropriate for any reader.
The Wider Practice
A third branch widens the experiment from happiness to the life around it.
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles (2016) is the essential companion from another tradition: the Japanese concept of ikigai - the reason for being, found at the intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs and what you can be paid for - and the practices of the longest-lived people in the world. It is the happiness project with a longer horizon, and it is the book for readers who want the experiment to include purpose. Content note: clean and accessible; appropriate for any reader.
The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler (1998) is the essential companion about happiness as a trained skill: the Dalai Lama’s teaching - that happiness is trained, practiced, chosen - shaped into a practical book by a Western psychiatrist. It is the deeper version of the happiness project’s premise, and it is the book for readers who want the practice beneath the experiments. Content note: clean and accessible; appropriate for any reader.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (2020) is the essential fictional companion: a woman who wants to die is shown the many lives she could have lived - and discovers that the meaning was in the life she had. It is the happiness project’s question (what would make me happy?) asked in fiction, with the answer the experiments keep reaching: the happiness was in the life you have. Content note: deals with depression and suicidal thoughts; for mature readers.
Themes and Values That Hold the Readalikes Together
Once you have read a few of these books side by side, the shared themes become clear, and they are worth naming because they are what make the category cohere.
Happiness as experiment runs through every one of them. The happiness project’s central method - treat happiness as something to test, measure and adjust, not something to await - is the load-bearing idea of the whole family. Harris tests meditation; Lyubomirsky tests the practices; Achor tests the advantage; Rubin tests the habits. The books are united by the conviction that happiness is not found by thinking about it but by trying things.
The honest report is the second shared value. The category is defined by honesty about what worked and what did not - Rubin reports her failures, Harris his skepticism, Gilbert our prediction errors. The books agree that the experiment is only as good as the reporting, and that the reader is being given results, not promises.
Small actions over grand resolutions is the third shared shape. The happiness project is built on small concrete actions - the resolutions for each month, the checklist, the daily practice - and the family keeps the scale. The books agree that happiness is built in small acts, repeated, and that the ordinary day is where the experiment runs.
One more theme is worth naming because it is the one that makes the category practical rather than inspirational: the baseline matters. Lyubomirsky’s research is explicit - roughly half of our happiness is set by genetics and circumstance - which is why the experiment books are so careful to report modest gains honestly rather than transformations. Rubin does not promise a new life; she promises a better ordinary day. Harris does not promise enlightenment; he promises ten percent. The books are united by the conviction that the honest small gain is the real thing, and that the promise of transformation is the first sign the book is lying.
What to Read Next Depends on Why You Loved It
If you loved the first-person experiment, read 10% Happier for the skeptic’s version and Better Than Before for the same author’s method.
If you loved the research, read The How of Happiness, The Happiness Advantage and Stumbling on Happiness, which are the science behind the experiments.
If you loved the practical actions, read Ikigai for the purpose dimension and The Art of Happiness for the practice beneath.
If you loved the question of whether it works, read The Midnight Library, which asks the same question in fiction.
Content Notes: What These Books Contain
All of these books are clean in the ordinary sense: no explicit content, no graphic violence. The distinctions are about accessibility and weight. The Happiness Project, Better Than Before, 10% Happier, The How of Happiness, The Happiness Advantage, Stumbling on Happiness, Ikigai and The Art of Happiness are accessible to any reader. The Midnight Library deals with depression and suicidal thoughts and is for mature readers. None of the books require a warning beyond that. Our thoughtful guide to moral dilemmas and our best purpose and meaning reading list offer related reading paths for the questions of happiness and the good life these books raise.
A Reading Plan for Book Clubs
The Happiness Project generates conversation on every level: the experiments, the resolutions, the question of whether happiness can be engineered. Some of the best discussion questions come from pairing it with a book that tests its claims: read it with The How of Happiness, and ask which experiments the research supports; read it with Stumbling on Happiness, and ask whether our predictions are the problem; read it with The Midnight Library, and ask whether the experiments were looking in the wrong place all along.
A second kind of question turns the discussion toward the members themselves: which of Rubin’s resolutions would you actually keep, and which would you abandon by February? The happiness project works best in a club because the honest report - the failure as well as the success - is the method, and a group is the place where honesty is safest.
Conclusion: The Project That Keeps Giving
The Happiness Project endures because it is about something permanent: the conviction that happiness is an experiment, that the honest report is the method, and that small actions beat grand resolutions. Every book on this list takes one piece of that - the experiment, the science, the practice, the fiction - and builds its own account around it. The joy of reading them is the joy of watching the same project run in different lives, different methods, different registers. Start with whichever part of the project you loved most, and let the comparison teach you what happiness is really made of. For the full collection of reading paths, start at the Ideas section of our site.
