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The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World Paperback – January 5, 2009

by Eric Weiner (Author)

347 customer reviews

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Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss 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 beguiling 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 Qatar, awash in petrodollars, find joy in all that cash? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy? With engaging wit and surprising insights, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.

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Product Details

Paperback: 345 pages
Publisher: Twelve; Reprint edition (January 5, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 044669889X
ISBN-13: 978-0446698894
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (347 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #51 in Books > Travel > Travel Writing
- #125 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Happiness
- #143 in Books > Medical Books > Psychology > General

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Customer Reviews

347

4.3 out of 5 stars

5 star		59%
4 star		23%
3 star		8%
2 star		6%
1 star		4%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

123 of 135 people found the following review helpful

a rollicking good read!

By Symbiosis on December 25, 2007

Format: Hardcover

If you're looking for a definitive answer to the book's premise, i.e., that happiness is about place, you might be disappointed. If, however, you are game for a journey about exploring that concept, Eric Weiner's book is for you. At once intelligent and witty, Geography of Bliss takes the reader to unfamiliar places to meet strangely familiar people. That's because the essence of what makes us happy (or unhappy) is basically the same everywhere, alloyed only by our culture and circumstances. It's a book that will make you think and laugh on the same page. And, it might just make you happy.

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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful

Unhappy Man Has Fun Seeking Happy Place

By GENE GERUE on February 6, 2008

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

Author, Eric Weiner, is mired in the bad-news business of journalism. As a correspondent for National Public Radio he has reported from Miami, New Delhi, Jerusalem, Afghanistan, Tokyo, and Iraq. He has covered wars and conflicts. He has won awards for coverage of Islamic issues in Asia and the tobacco industry in the U.S. He has focused on a lot of bad stuff--which often seems the modern definition of news. It is no wonder that he openly cops to being unhappy.

Weiner's quest here is to find a place and conditions that might cheer him up. He apparently considers only slightly the fact that any place he goes, he takes his unhappy self with him. The sub-title, One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World, sets the stage.

Can the conditions of place cause or at least contribute to happiness? My personal experience and letters from readers says yes. I confined my search to the contiguous 48 states; travelholic Weiner takes us to nine more countries.

First to The Netherlands and the World Database of Happiness to learn what Ruut Veenhoven, "the godfather of happiness research" knows. On to Switzerland, where the natives feel more than contentment but less than joy. Thence to Bhutan, where the king has proclaimed Gross National Happiness; Qatar, where each new husband gets a $7,000 monthly allowance, a building lot and a no-interest home loan; Iceland, where we learn that colder is happier; Moldova, "the least happy nation on the planet" according to Veenhoven's data; Thailand, where keeping the long view of life creates much joking and laughter; Great Britain, where culture hinders happiness; India, a destination happy place; and then back home to Miami, where all that sunshine leaves our author cold.

We learn that money wealth gives but a small edge.Read more ›

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62 of 69 people found the following review helpful

Interesting and enjoyable

By Julia Flyte TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on January 5, 2008

Format: Hardcover

This travelogue by self-confessed grump Eric "Whiner" is a yearlong tour of a very unusual assortment of countries (sample: Holland, Qatar, Bhutan and Iceland), most of which have been chosen because they are home to some of the happiest resident populations in the world, (although a couple are chosen to present a contrast). There are some interesting conclusions drawn about what does and doesn't make for happiness, about the importance of democracy and wealth (so revered in the US) and how they are part of the answer but far from being the solution.

Weiner has a lovely turn of phrase (reminiscent of Bill Bryson) and although The Geography of Bliss wasn't as laugh-out-loud funny as I expected (more dryly amusing), it is both immensely readable and packed to the gills with fascinating nuggets of information. Weiner visits two countries that I have spent considerable time in (India and Switzerland), and while I felt his observations of Switzerland were pretty much spot on, I felt that he only scratched the surface of India, a country which I consider to be particularly complex. But I loved his description of Slough in England (the location for the UK TV show "The Office") as "a showpiece of quiet desperation" and I now have even less desire than ever before to visit Moldava which sounds like a hideously depressing place.

Ultimately there are no major revelations in this book - essentially, his argument is that happiness means different things to different people - but it makes for easy, thought-provoking reading. I enjoyed it.

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54 of 60 people found the following review helpful

A happy read

By Bookreporter on January 15, 2008

Format: Hardcover

Eric Weiner is an NPR correspondent who has reported from more than 30 countries. To write this far-reaching tome he had to travel to far-flung lands, all connected (with one exception) by a single thread: these were places where, reputedly, the citizenry is happy.

Two tiny countries offer a brilliant contrast in the principles that Weiner set out to examine. Qatar and Bhutan are relatively hard to reach. Both have inhospitable climates and a low population. Both have been altered greatly in very recent history, allowing for radical changes in the lifestyle of the citizenry.

Qatar is a pile of sand somewhere in the Middle East that became an earthly Eden when oil and natural gas were discovered there in such vast plentitude as to make work, for its extended family of Arabic inhabitants, obsolete. A Qatari will be paid to attend school, paid to marry, given a house and allowed to carelessly wreck as many cars as he sees fit. Rules no longer apply to the people of Qatar, in a broad sense, as long as they obey the dictates of their Islamic religion and stay inside, living within the bizarre hierarchy that dictates their society --- indoors because it is not possible to live very long without air conditioning in Qatar, which is basically a series of connected malls and mansions, and hierarchical because, of course, Qataris cannot do their own work. For that they import Indians, Nepalis and other lesser races.

These strictures made it difficult for Weiner to do what a journalist must do: interview the natives of the country. He was told that his American passport and Jewish name would prevent him from meeting real Qataris. So to experience the country, he had to be content with talking to expatriates and buying one "Ridiculously Expensive Pen.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

A worthy topix covered well enough

Overall I enjoyed the book but felt like he never got a grasp on how to create a happy life. Perhaps due to the nature of skimming the surface of a country's happiness rather than... Read more

Published 5 days ago by sdg

Reads like a travelogue

A splendid read, as I picked this book up with only the smallest degree of curiosity to "happy" than to the lands Weiner explores and his subsequent experiences with the... Read more

Published 6 days ago by D.Beyer

This was by far the worst book that has met my eyes in a very ...

This was by far the worst book that has met my eyes in a very long time. For starters, the whole idea of the book, that you can "measure" (accurately) happiness levels is... Read more

Published 13 days ago by J. Smith

great fun. I have recommended it to many

great fun . I have recommended it to many folks

Published 14 days ago by book lover

Great read!

Loved this book! A good blend of travel writing and world views. It's funny and insightful--and I'm keeping it so I can re read it.

Published 18 days ago by L. Gray

Educational journey to find happiness

I enjoyed Eric Weiner's search for the happiest country on earth. I didn't expect to be educated about countries I had hardly heard of but that was one of the best parts of the... Read more

Published 21 days ago by Richard W. Hudson

Enjoy this author!

I'm ready to pack my bags and head to Bhutan!

Published 1 month ago by Mame Philips

Bliss still not found

This book just didn't work for me. The author is a fine writer but he only skims the surface of the places he visits, not really revealing anything about the countries (except... Read more

Published 1 month ago by P. M.

Three Stars

It was amusing and interesting. There was just too much of the author interjected.

Published 2 months ago by Virginia Miller

Five Stars

I truly enjoyed this book. Something I could relate to, laugh-out-loud funny, and interesting and thought-provoking.

Published 3 months ago by CincyKT

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