This collection of 65 articles includes some of Bella DePaulo's most popular and empowering writings from her "Living Single" blog at Psychology Today as well as other articles readers have loved. DePaulo explains why so many single people find single life so deeply rewarding. She mocks those "why are you single" lists that pathologize single people. One of the myths about single people is that we are "missing out." In The Best of Single Life, DePaulo flips that bit of conventional wisdom, and suggest ways in which it is the people who are not single who are missing out. To live single is to decide for yourself what constitutes the good life. Do you value solitude, independence, sociability, meaningful work, sexual experiences, the pursuit of your passions and more, or just some of these things? You get to choose. You get to live the life that is best for you.
The book includes 8 sections:
Why Singles Are Thriving – Despite Everything You've Heard to the Contrary
Single Life: We Chose It
Mocking Those 'Why Are You Single' Lists
The Good Life and the Successful Life
Savoring Our Solitude: Choosing to Spend Time Alone
Valuing Our Relationships: Choosing to Spend Time with Other People
Sex and the Single Person: Have It Your Way – or Just Skip It
Are We Missing Out by Being Single – or Are They?
Among the 65 articles in the book are:
7 secrets of successful single people
Who wrote the book of love? Happy single people
Fear not: The advantages of people unafraid to be single
Are single people more resilient than everyone else?
Why aren't married people any happier than singles? A Nobel Prize winner's answer
The last 'why are you single' list you will ever need
Elements of the good life: Our list is too short
Sweet solitude: The benefits it brings and the special strengths of the people who enjoy it
The happy loner
Best things about living alone – for people who mean it
Single, no children: Who's your family?
If you are single, will you grow old alone? Results from 6 nations
Who keeps siblings together when they become adults?
Bigger, broader meanings of love and romance
Getting married and getting sex (or not)
Asexuals: Who are they and why are they important?
Are monogamous relationships really better?
23 ways singles are better
What you miss by doing what everyone else does
Top 8 reasons not to marry
Keeping marriage alive with affairs, asexuality, polyamory, and living apart
How many married people wish they were single?
The end of marriage
The Best of Single Life was just published in September, 2014, so there is no sales information yet. The author, Bella DePaulo, has been described by Atlantic magazine as "America's foremost thinker and writer on the single experience."
Producers of shows such as The Bachelor don't want you to know this. Peddlers of dating guides try to keep it a secret. Some of my fellow scholars pretend it's not true. Even some of your closest friends might contort their faces into expressions of disbelief if you were to suggest it to them. But it is true. //Plenty of single people are leading happy and successful lives. //They are not pining for "The One" or crying into their beer. Instead, they are living their single lives fully, joyfully, and unapologetically — whether they plan to do so for one month, for one year, or for the rest of their lives. //What are the secrets of these happily single people? //I've been studying singles for well over a decade, and I think that the happiest and most fulfilled single people have a strong sense of self. They know themselves and trust themselves. Stuck in a matrimaniacal culture — one that is laden with over-the-top hyping of marriage, weddings, and coupling — they are secure enough to know that they can live meaningful and rewarding single lives if they choose to do so — even if they're open to finding a partner, but just not actively looking. // It can seem so much easier to follow the prescribed path that is supposed to lead to happiness: finding your soulmate as soon as possible and then investing just about all of your time, energy, wishes and dreams into that one person. But what if you decided to forge your own path? What might your life look like then?
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Italian
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Translated by Felicetta Nunziata
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Portuguese
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Translated by Constança Alves
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Marcela Gutiérrez Bravo
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