Product Description
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 o… More >>
The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World
Tags: America, Bliss, democratic country, DescriptionPart, Discourse, foreign affairs, Geography, grump, Grump's, Happiest, happiness, humor, Iceland, India, part, Places, places in the world, Search, self-help, Switzerland, travel psychology, unhappiness, world
#1 by Michael Powers on January 20, 2010 - 10:28 pm
If you were expecting an enlightened review of the most blissful places on Earth, please save your money. The author (and I use this term loosely) only sees life from a “glass half empty” perspective. The first chapter enlightens one that you can find the best hash in the world in Amsterdam, which provides the author “bliss.” I tried to start the second chapter, but when he starts out noting his hatred of the Swiss and deriding their timeliness and devotion to chocolate, I couldn’t read any more.
What a sad, pathetic man! But would you expect anything less than this from a contributor to NPR? I will be donating this useless, waste-of-my-time drivel to my local library for a tax write-off!
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by Stephanie Rollins on January 20, 2010 - 11:45 pm
The Geography of Bliss
One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World.
Eric Weiner
ISBN: 978-0-446-58026-7
Twelve, Hachette Book Co., 2007
Travel and happiness…
3 Stars
Eric Weiner liked to travel, especially when someone else was paying for it. He had spent many years reporting the news as a foreign correspondent. Sad and unhappy stories make good news stories. Weiner was sure there were profoundly happy places in the world.
This was an opportunity for him to travel around the world for a year in search of happy places. Weiner readily admits he is a grouch. I think he is a witty grouch. The Geography of Bliss takes us on a tour of ten countries.
We begin our tour in Switzerland. The Swiss should be happy people they have the key to life, chocolate, good chocolate. The Swiss’ “laid back” attitude, may be why they are so happy; then again, there is the afore mentioned chocolate. In Qatar he finds people are wealthy but not necessarily happy. The tour ends in America. Eric Weiner may claim to be a grump but he has a dry witty sense of humor that shines through in his writings.
Rating: 3 / 5
#3 by RB from Berkeley on January 21, 2010 - 12:30 am
The long shadow of the baby boomers continues to dominate our culture. They’re not sure if they’re young or old, but they’re not ready to retire from media and make room for new voices. Are you a 72 y.o. “grump,” or are you a 22 y.o. smoking hash in Amsterdam?
The alleged shapelessness of the author’s life comes across in the shapelessness of the book. It reads like it was written twice. One pass for the storytelling, and a second pass to insert joke punches. This makes the pacing kind of arrhythmic: woe, woe, joke, travel, joke, woe.
And really, about the woe… It takes a special kind of “huevos” to lead a life of paid travel around the globe, and then COMPLAIN about it.
I’m sure that this book will speak to its age-appropriate audience (and sell nicely to its niche), but I wouldn’t expect it to find much sympathy outside of that demographic.
Rating: 3 / 5
#4 by Joseph S. Maresca on January 21, 2010 - 12:59 am
The author tries to define happiness with reference to
noted faraway places. As such, he has created a global
database of happiness naming the happiest places and
the most miserable alike. Bhutan has sought to quantify
the concept by tracking GNH or Gross National Happiness.
This concept has application in the USA because GNH
could be a pointer to a person’s health and well being.
Happiness, itself is in the nature of a philosophical
universal very much like love, thoughtfulness and kindness.
Bhutan charges $200 per day for visitors. The country
is a lab of human betterment. Crime is low and life
expectancy is high. Health care is free.
All rulings are made through the prism of GNH.
The government of Qatar is described. Qataris favor retaining
the old. The government pays a salary to Qatar college students.
Saud bin Mohammad al-Thai is one of the richest men in the world
with well over $1.5 billion dollars. Seats on the Qatar Airline
are adjustable infinitely.
Iceland is another place which ranks high on the happiness scale.
The purest form of the Viking language is purported to be spoken
here. All governments are concerned about happiness; yet, some
measure and live it better than others. The work is somewhat
of an oddity in today’s stressful world.
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Grind on January 21, 2010 - 3:26 am
my god, this is a book for people who never ever leave their home, not even when they’re travelling.
a mis-informed and confused mass of stereotypes and labels, with bits of humor that sound like the Pall Mall Gazette. if anything, the chapters on switzerland, moldova, thailand and india are funny only unwittingly, for they are more about the author’s gullible way of looking at things than about the places themselves. I won’t even begin talking about his understanding of hapiness through “statistics”
I don’t know what the author has been doing all these years as a foreign correspondent, but he sure as hell didn’t get to make ANY friends in ANY of these places, not even in Iceland. talk about a grump indeed. the result is a self-complacent bucketful of stereotypes with very-very vague racist undertones.
bottom-line: unfortunately it seems that bliss and hapiness simply evaded the author himself. surprise surprise: as it turns out, a grump doesn’t really know much about happiness. so spare yourself and try some other travel books.
Rating: 1 / 5