This weekend, BoomTown got hold of a new book by former AOL exec and longtime entrepreneur Ted Leonsis, which it set to be released on Feb. 8 by Regnery Publishing. Titled The Business of Happiness: 6 Secrets to Extraordinary Success in Life and Work, Leonsis penned the book with former AOL PR head John Buckley. And like the ebullient Leonsis, its entertaining fulcrum is a list he often talks about, one he made after a scary plane experience 25 years ago of the 101 things he wanted to achieve before he died. "At the time, I thought that ticking items off my list would make me happy," he writes in the book's introduction. It seems to have worked, he notes. "I've found that actively pursuing happiness seems to be a driver of success." In the second part of the book, Leonsis offers advice to others on how to get to happiness and success the Ted way. But I especially enjoyed the first part, in which Leonsis tells his story--from humbling beginnings to college at Georgetown University to his start in the tech industry at Wang to his first successful forays into entrepreneurship. Eventually, one of his start-ups--Redgate Communications--was bought by Steve Case of AOL. Leonsis writes about this roller-coaster ride at AOL, which had as many downs as ups--with one of its down-est downs being its moment of glory: The merger with Time Warner (TWX). "Let me state for the record: I was passionately opposed to the merger with Time Warner," he writes. And he was. For the most part in the book, Leonsis is probably kinder to the principals on all sides than is warranted. But--for those who know him well--this is due more his glass-full nature than trying to be willfully opaque about what is now widely considered the worst U.S. business alliance in history....Leonsis left AOL 2007 and moved on--becoming even more involved with his sports teams, forays into filmmaking and investing in new start-ups (sometimes with Case)--and carving out what seems to be a pretty happy life. At the end of his book, Leonsis publishes his list and shows what he has checked off and what he has not. He seems to have made a big dent in it, although he still needs to win a world championship and go into outer space. Also get a hole-in-one. Not that I am keeping track, Ted, but you better get cracking. --All Things Digital, January 19, 2010, Kara Swisher