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The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World


by Eric Weiner

List Price: $25.99
Price: $17.15
You Save: $8.84 (34%)
Available: Usually ships in 24 hours
Sales Rank: 3016
Studio: Twelve
Binding: Hardcover
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: January 03, 2008
Publisher: Twelve


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

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 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. (2007)


CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 79 reviews)

An engaging journey  
I got this book on CD from the library and listened to it on my commute back and forth to work. It was perfect for that. The commute time just flew by.

Weiner is a good story teller. The book was engaging and smart while not being too challenging to follow while trying to drive.

I thoroughly enjoyed every chapter (except maybe the first - which was needed to set the stage but a little boring).

I'd highly recommend this to anyone interested in learning about different cultures and/or exploring what it means to be happy.


August 30, 2008

A good read  
I liked reading this one. The content is very superficial , yet a brief run arround the world. I must say the penmanship was not to my taste and at times disrespectful. - But I can still recommand this one!!
August 17, 2008

A very funny grump, if he insists on calling himself a grump!  
Excellent writing. I loved every chapter and giggled when he unexpectedly whipped in an amusing quote, a witty word, or added his funny explanatory words in parentheses. I loved his descriptions. Had the fortune of traveling some of the places and thoroughly enjoyed his insights, saying ahhhhhh to myself when he again hit the nail right on the head. My two favorites were the chapters on Iceland and Switzerland. Weiner sure recognized them in a hurry!

A fine book with fine insights, funny, and easy reading.
August 07, 2008

Funny, light, entertaining....  
Great read--recommended. Part travelogue--just as interesting learning about the different countries and their cultures as it was learning about what makes people happy. Would have liked to have learned more about specific regions/cities in America where people are happiest--but perhaps that is for another book.
August 07, 2008

I Got a Boot Out of It...  
Not a bad book - could have used some more editing (some phrases repeated on the same page)but not bad. I did get a tad tired of hearing people compare themselves to the US - I wondered just where they got their impressions of Americans from. Like the guy in Thailand who said that Thais are different from Americans 'cause they like to laugh and joke at work. What? I don't think I've ever worked in an environment where laughing and joking didn't go on. And dear Mr. "Whiner" - you're not really a grump, you're just a Melancholy. Check out the Personality books by Florence Littauer (and others) and you'll see for yourself.
July 30, 2008


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