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Loading... The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World (2008)by Eric Weiner
Work InformationThe Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner (2008)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. He is not kidding when he says he is a grump. It is sort of a mdern day innocents abroad, interesting and fun ( ) The search for happiness is a thin veil to this fun travelogue of interesting places and the people who inhabit them. Having visited many of the places in this book made it all the more enjoyable for me, and it reminded me of the importance of respecting other cultures, not just abroad, but at home as well. Read this over the fall of 2023. Generally was not impressed. The author has a very candid tone throughout that takes away from the messages of each chapter. He thinks he is being funny and clever, but it is just distracting. Each chapter presents a trip and exploration of "happiness" in an individual country, and sections in each cover the interactions of the author with local "experts." Ultimately, the best part was the epilogue and afterword where Weiner weaves the disparate themes together. The reader gets a cursory overview of the places being visited, and brief introductions to the concept of happiness in each location (often presented by coffee or pub chats between the locals and the author) but you need to stop and think about each chapter in order to really take anything away. This is not a self-help book, and it is not a travelogue, so I really do not know what this book was trying to get at. In trying to balance between the two, Weiner did neither. Eric Weiner, a travel correspondent, decides to go on a mission to discover some of the happiest places in the world, spending time with each nation's residents in order to find out what makes a person, or a nation, happy. Is it geography? Wealth? Climate? Government? Family? Friends? Something else? I've had this audio on my TBR shelf for about 15 years now, after picking it up at a book warehouse sale. The title seemed appealing. Who wouldn't be curious as to where the happiest place(s) in the world might be? After all, maybe I'd like to be sure to visit there someday. Weiner starts out in the Netherlands, home of the World Database of Happiness, which gives him some statistics and a baseline plan for travel. From there he visits a series of some of the supposed happiest places on earth, as well as one not-so-happy place. I'll have to admit that his itinerary was not exactly what I would've expected, including visits to Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, Great Britain, India, and then concluding back home in the U.S. (Can you guess which of those was the not-so-happy place?) While I'm not sure I came away with any hard take-aways after reading this, I found it enjoyable enough and there was adequate light humor throughout that kept me engaged. I think happiness is something that's hard to objectify and is going to vary largely on who you talk to and when you talk to them. But still, an enjoyable enough travelogue. no reviews | add a review
Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, this book takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Singapore benefit psychologically by having their options limited by the government? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina, so darn happy? NPR correspondent Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.--From publisher description. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)910.4History and Geography Geography and Travel Geography and Travel Accounts of travel and facilities for travellersLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. Hachette Book Group4 editions of this book were published by Hachette Book Group. Editions: 0446580260, 1600242588, 044669889X, 1600244343 |