Book Nook: Don't worry, read 'Happy'

HAPPY: Simple Steps to Get the Most Out of Life,by Ian K. Smith, M.D. St. Martin's Press, $23.99,

232 pp.

Ian K. Smith, bestselling diet book doctor and host of VH1's Celebrity Fit Club, now turns his attention to getting us happy.

His epiphany: On his Indonesian honeymoon, a hotel employee driving him across the resort - just so he could connect to the Internet at midnight - made him wake up to the emptiness of his busy, materialistic life.

This book draws from research in the growing field of positive psychology.

THE SCOOP

He'll help you devise "Your Happy Plan" - discovering what makes you happy, be it time with family, time alone, time in nature.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Most of Smith's suggestions aren't new - every Oprah Winfrey fan, for example, knows about keeping a gratitude journal. But he might just help you learn to stop the world and get off - at least for a little while.