Dan Buettner

Despite the book having a quote from Dr. Oz on the front, I found this book to be very interesting and informative. It was a great mix of science and personal stories, mixing qualitative and quantitative evidence. Th author had a few missteps, such as the fact that, despite longevity research having been predominantly focused around women, in none of his expeditions did he include a single female longevity expert. And him drawing conclusions about things that are true for "most of the show more population (except pre-menopausal women)"--yes, technically the number of males and women who are peri- or post-menopausal in the United States is greater than the rest of the female population, but it is not like females under the age of 45ish make up an insignificant portion of the population. But despite there being a few moments which led to me argue with the author in the margins, in general this book provided excellent food for thought (and discussion with my family, whether they liked it or not), and I would highly recommend. show less

Worth reading if you are wondering what the research says about different ways of increasing life satisfaction and how other nations handle public policy and how national habits affect the level of satisfaction that citizens feel. The data is relevant but those sections are pretty dry reading. I liked learning how different countries' lifestyles and habits differ. I lived in Europe for six years, so I have never been one of those Americans who thought we had the best standard of living and show more life satisfaction level. I think the US could do much better for children, poor, homeless, and disabled to live better lives. We do consume too much of the world's resources and we aren't happier for it. In any case, this book did give lots of information and recommendations from a panel of experts to consider. I'd rate this three and a half stars, but I'll round up. show less

Dear Dan,

In your book you say "Take 6 weeks of vacation, no matter what."
My boss would fire me if I did. Which probably wouldn't contribute too much to my happiness.

However, that being said, I thought you touched on many things that really do contribute to thriving during your life. I particularly was interested in a point you didn't cover-- the differing medical philosophies of those in Denmark and the US. That wasn't quite the point of your book. I did find it to be a potentially show more relevant point, though.

Your stats were intriguing and your interviews also. In sum, I thought it was an above average book that just missed a couple of points(see first paragraph).

Keep up the interesting work,

Me show less

There's a lot of interesting stuff contained within this book.   Good luck if you can find yourself in a situation where you have all the support and society around you that allows you to achieve these things.

Sadly, most of us simply don't have the land available to farm our own organic vegetables and fruit for every meal, most people don't live in places where they can drink pure water that isn't some other town's poorly-treated sewage dumped upstream into the river that fills the local show more reservoir, and most people don't get to live in places free of all the traffic, and industrial, produced noise and air pollution.

Most people won't ever be surrounded by family and friends their whole lives that would support, share and help them in achieving the same organic wholefood, stress free, pollution free, clean living lifestyle that is espoused in these stories.

I'd heard a lot of good things about this book and i really was looking forward to reading it.   Having read it, i just find most of it disingenuous, in that it is utterly ridiculous to suggest that most people could have a lifestyle like this even if they wanted to.   But hey, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, maybe you can find some things within to help you.

It's even suggested at the end of the book that you build your own blue zone.   Good luck with that, i sincerely hope you can find yourself some space in this ever more overpopulated world that leaves less and less space free from air pollution, light pollution, noise, junk food, bad people, traffic, noise, industry, habitat destruction and all the rest of modern society's garbage: because that's what you need to do.   Maybe when Antarctica finally melts you'll find some nice, free, unpolluted land, but i reckon the corporations will have beaten you to it with massive military, mining and construction projects.

My biggest gripe with this book is that there are far better ways for people to be thinking about improving their health and longevity in today's modern societies.   This book suggests 10 extra years of healthy life, but consider, when it's becoming more and more common that people are sick and diseased and reliant upon medication to survive in their 30's and 40's, is 10 extra years all you really want?   I want 40 or 50 years of extra healthy life and this book isn't offering that at all. show less