A short, brilliantly fun book about how to be happy and successful at work.

I just finished Daniel Pink’s new book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko. It’s a career guide written in the form of a comic book.

It’s brilliant.

Ever since I read Scott McCloud’s mind-blowing book, Understanding Comics, I’ve been intrigued with comics as an approach to convey lots of complex information in an elegant, accessible way. I never read comics myself, but McCloud convinced me that this format had extraordinary possibilities.

I’ve always been interested in how people process information. Each of my books – Power Money Fame Sex, Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill, and the others -- has used unconventional ways to make my arguments. But I never thought to try using comics, even after reading McCloud.

Well, Daniel Pink’s book does this, and with huge success. In a short, fun read, he sets forth his guide to how to be happy and successful at work. Writing the book in a more conventional style would have taken far more words, been less interesting, and less memorable.

Reading this career guide in comic-book form made it ridiculously easy to remember the main points:

1. There is no plan.
2. Think strengths, not weaknesses.
3. It's not about you.
4. Persistence trumps talent.
5. Make excellent mistakes.
6. Leave an imprint.

This is great advice for life in general, not just making career choices. In fact, several of Pink's points play a big part in my Happiness Project -- "Enjoy the fun of failure," "Be Gretchen," why I left law for writing, etc.

Even if – like me – you don’t read comics, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko is a terrific book. And apart from the sound advice it offers, it’s fascinating to see comics used as a teaching device.

*
I love getting the chance to meet people from blogland in person. Yes, they really exist! In human form! Yesterday I had coffee with Jonathan Fields, who has the great blog, Awake at the Wheel. I was keeping my resolution to "Show up," and as always, I was glad I did.

*
New to the Happiness Project? Consider subscribing to my RSS feed: Subscribe to this blog's feed. Or sign up to get email updates in the box at the top righthand corner.
If you're starting your own happiness project, please join the Happiness Project Group on Facebook to swap ideas. It's easy; it's free.

Comments

[Mike Sporer]

Gretchen;

I also just finished Dan's book. Writing in a comic-book fashion is different and new to me, but very effective. I think I may pass it along to a select few students at my school. Great suff...

Mike

[GirlPie]

I'd bought,browsed (as a guilty pleasure) and continue to enjoy McCloud's book based on your recommendation. Pink's book sounds like I could actually read it at my desk and call it business~! Do you have a referral link to buy?

Thanks so much for doing the vetting for your readers; we trust you and enjoy it when you trust yourself.

[Bertie]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll have to pick it up!

Also- great blog! I look forward to becoming an avid reader of your blog:)

[Gretchen Rubin]

Just click on the title of the book in my post, and it will zip you into Amazon.

Or go to your local indie bookstore! All bookstores big and small need our love!

[L.G. Whitman]

Understanding Comics should be recommended reading for anyone interested in the creative field, from writing to the fine arts.

Looks like I need to check out Daniel Pink's book.

[LadyExpat]

Both books sound worthy of a read. I'll be picking them up, or delivered. I doubt I'd find them here in Korea.

[Felicia Mitchell]

I would also recommend Art Spiegelman's Maus books. These texts, especially the first, reintroduced me to "comics" and how they can construct history. I should read Pink's book before I teach Maus again.

[matt]

Talk about the power of a good blog--I purchased Bunko 2 days ago on your recommendation--and then read quite a bit about Pink himself and his other writings while at the same time cross-referencing jonathan field's blog 'asleep at the wheel' (whom you met in NY recently) in which he discussed how to get little things (ie, a brief mention in a blog, for instance) very big very quickly and written about in major media venues. (Or is that vice versa?) Anyway, here it is today in the NY Times, currently the most emailed about article of the day, the fascinating subject of the 'new' status of right brain thinking in the corporate community, and a fat plug for Pink's newish book. I'm almost surprised that your blog wasn't mentioned in this article as well!