The Geography of Bliss
One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
by Eric Weiner
Overview
From the Publisher
Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide,
The Geography of Bliss takes the listener 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.
My thoughts
I thought this book was a riot. The first chapters were the strongest, I thought, when he was was throwing out facts right and left about how to quantify happiness and where happiness can be found. The stastics he used to ask questions and illustrate points were delightful! I was laughing out loud a lot!
Some comparisons have been made between the author and Bill Bryson, and I would agree that there were some similar writing styles. Definitely a mix of humor and sarcasm within the text.
I thought it was a great book! Thanks Mike and Amy for giving me this book for Christmas! You did great!
Favorite Passage
Extroverts are happier than introverts; optimists are happier than pessimists; married people are happier than singles, though people with children are no happier htan childless couples; Republicans are happier than Democrats; people who attend religious services are happier than those who do not; people with college degrees are happier than those without, though people with advanced degrees are less happy than those with just a BA; people with an active sex life are happier than those without; women and men are equally happy, though women have a wider emotional range; having an affair will make you happy but will not compensate for the massive loss of happiness that will incur when your spouse finds out and leaves you; people are least happy when they're commuting to work; busy people are happier than those with too little to do; wealthy people are happier than poor ones, but only slightly.
Not so fast. Social scientists have a hard time unraveling what they call "reverse causality" and what the rest of us call the chicken-and-egg problem. For instance, healthy people are happier than unhealthy ones; or is it that happy people tend to be healthier? Married people are happy; or maybe happy people are more likely to get married? It's tough to say.
