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The Geography of Bliss:

One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World (Google eBook)
Front Cover
198 Reviews
Hachette Digital, Inc., Jan 3, 2008 - Travel
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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5 stars
38
4 stars
57
3 stars
43
2 stars
32
1 star
28

Written well, and somewhat educational/interesting. - Goodreads
Good premise ruined by bad writing. - Goodreads
I don't know if it's his writing style or what. - Goodreads
Meh. Disjointed, oddly "researched" book. - Goodreads
Weiner has a gift for writing. - Goodreads

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

User Review  - Julia - Goodreads

I just couldn't finish this book, and therefore have no idea why India, America & Great Britain are happy places, while Moldava is not. I can guess why though, probably just as well as the author's ... Read full review

Review: Geography of Bliss

User Review  - Daniel - Goodreads

An interesting, rambling sort of book. Light reading and light significance. Inoffensive but lacking significant substance or style. Read full review

All 190 reviews »

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Contents

Dedication Epigraph Introduction
THE NETHERLANDS
SWITZERLAND
BHUTAN
QATAR
ICELAND
MOLDOVA
THAILAND
GREAT BRITAIN
INDIA
AMERICA
EPILOGUE
Acknowledgments About the Author
Copyright

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About the author (2008)

Eric Weiner, an award-winning foreign correspondent for NPR and a former reporter for the New York Times, has written stories from more than three dozen countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Indonesia. His commentary has appeared in The New Republic, The International Herald Tribune, and The Los Angeles Times, and he writes the popular "How They Do It" column for Slate. He has lived in New Delhi, Jerusalem and Tokyo.

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