Have you ever heard of the study of happiness? I know that I hadn't until I read this book, I understand now, how addictive it could be to try and find a happy place, if, of course, I wasn't already happy and had an expense account to fund it.
This book gives statistics of happiness arrived at through vast research, for example:
Extroverts are happier than introverts;
optimists are happier than pessimists(who would have thunk?);
married people are happier than singles, though people with children are no happier than childless couples;
Republicans are happier than Democrats;
wealthy people are happier than poor ones; (do the last two go together?)
people with an active sex life are happier than those without; (Does that one go with the last two, too?
busy people are happier than those with little to do; it just goes on and on.

So the author sets out to explore the possibility that some places are happier than others. He starts out in Holland and after determining that part of the "happiness" allure to the Dutch nation is the legality of pot and prostitution, and their fondness for cycling, he moves on to Switzerland.

After all, Switzerland makes great Chocolate, what would make you happier? The insights presented for Swiss happiness appear normal in some instances (nature, mountains) and bizarre in other ( strict laws - no toilet flushing after 10PM but euthanasia is legal). Philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote "A certain amount of boredom is essential to a happy life" and the author concludes the Swiss reason for happiness is that they are boring. He moves on.

Next is Bhutan and Asian country in the Himalayas which actually has a national Happiness Policy and it is part of the national anthem. What would you expect being so close to the mythical Shangri-La.

The author visits Qatar where Happiness is a winning lottery ticket, Iceland where happiness is failure (a unique concept), Moldova which is at the bottom of the happiness scale (possibly because of the economic and cultural conditions since the Soviet breakup), and Thailand where the people are too busy being happy to think about happiness because they take life as it comes.
Starting his trip heading home, the author stops in India receiving the definition of Indian happiness being unpredictability, and Great Britain is happy with change. Finally arriving home the author determines that paradise is fleeting. If you find it, everyone else will too and then, it might not be paradise anymore. But, for most, Happiness is home. ( )

This book made me want to live in Iceland. :^) It's a nice idea - to search for the world's happiest place; although everyone with any commonsense know that happiness is a state of mind, not a place, right? ;^) (Kind of like what the late Pope said about Hell . . . ) An enjoyable, travel essay read, although don't go looking for any self-help in it. The biggest pearl of wisdom that Weiner's travels and examinations reminded me of is this: the happiest people are the ones who can let things go. ( )

self-professed grump and NPR correspondent traveled the globe to identify what countries were "happiest" and why. An interesting project. I learned a lot about countries I previously knew nothing about. And remain pretty happy to live in America.

Slogged through this book for 4 weeks. The premise of the book - examining the links between happiness and culture - is a good one. I disliked the author dropping quotes about happiness every other paragraph. On the plus side - who knew the people of Bhutan were so happy? ( )

Eric Weiner, a correspondent for National Public Radio, does the reading for the audio version of his book describing his yearlong quest to find the world's most blissful places. As a professed “whiner” who is possibly “addicted to being unhappy,” he was looking for the secret of what makes people feel good. To that end, he went to various places rated high on sociologists’ happiness scales, such as the Netherlands, Bhutan, Iceland, and Qatar, visiting nine foreign countries altogether over the course of a year. He ended up back in the United States, which “is not as happy as it is wealthy.”

He didn't spend much time in each country, and met only a handful of residents in each, asking them to tell him if they were happy and why. These not very interesting or helpful anecdotes are supplemented by his own mildly amusing but not very helpful observations. His snap judgments about a country after so little time and exposure reminded me of when I went to Europe right after college (one of those twelve countries in twelve days excursions). Afterwards I thought I knew everything there was to know about each country I visited, and was not shy about expounding on my “insights.” Similar to my behavior back then, Weiner is prone to make over-sweeping generalizations, does not seem to have done much homework on the countries he visits, and thinks that his brief encounters with natives in coffee shops and bars have conferred enlightenment upon him.

Unfortunately, I quickly grew tired of hearing not very interesting or amusing commentary about not very well-researched subjects. After one gratuitous misquote of Cole Porter and one egregious mispronunciation (he said hyperbole as if it were pronounced “hyper-bowl”) (an NPR correspondent, no less!), that was it for me.

I listened to only half of the disks on this unabridged audiobook. I didn’t learn about much of anything except my tolerance for banality. Some of the vignettes may be worthy of a few two-minute essay spots on one of NPR’s shows like “All Things Considered.” But eleven disks? I had to stop; it was making me too unhappy. ( )