An interesting, well-written jaunt through ten disparate cultures

books:

	• The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World Eric Weiner Twelve, 2008 - 329 pages average customer review:based on 87 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good thoughts, good humor, good descriptions

I love books that have humor and wisdom and this has both in good measure. I underline good thoughts like this from a Swiss "'Maybe happiness is this: not feeling like you should be elsewhere, doing something else, being someone else.'" And this from Karma in Bhutan when asked if he was happy. "'Looking back at my life, I find that the answer is yes. I have achieved happiness because I don't have unrealistic expectations.'"

I bought the book because I am researching books on happiness so I had low expectations. What a wonderful surprise! I am less than a quarter of the way through and am already dreading reaching the end. I have had to read passages out loud at my wife's request when she heared me laughing. I am also enjoying Mr. Weiner's descriptions of the happy countries he visits.

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In Search of Happiness -- The Travelogue

"I just want my children to be happy." How many times have you heard an American parent say that before sighing out of concern for how junior might turn out?

Eric Weiner's family must have shared that vision over him at some point because the self-described grump decided to read all the research about the factors that seem related to self-described happiness . . . and then to traipse all over the world to take a closer look at extreme conditions. Such an assignment would have turned me from a joyful person into a grump. Fortunately, Mr. Weiner tolerated it all pretty well.

I'm a little puzzled by the book's premise: Why doesn't Mr. Weiner just makes notes about when he is and isn't happy and test out spending more time in the former circumstances and less time in the latter to see if his happiness grows or his grumpiness recedes? That's the scientific method of experimentation to test hypothesis.

Asking people how happy they are on a scale of one to ten seems awfully subjective and arbitrary. Cultural norms in some countries might lead people to answer more positively than those in other countries, even if people were experiencing the same amount of happiness.

But if you crave a summary of what factors are more often associated with those who describe themselves as happy, this book is pretty efficient at spelling that out early in the book.

From there, the book turns into an amusing travelogue primarily taking the reader to places you probably haven't visited (Netherlands, Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, and India) and some you probably have (Great Britain and the United States). Mr. Weiner is most imaginative in his choice of locales and his exploration of life style choices (looking into the flesh and drugs of the Netherlands, riding on the clean trains in Switzerland, passing the flesh pots of Thailand, wandering around in the darkness of an Iceland winter, trying to meet a local Arab in Qatar while escaping from luxury and service, checking out the local culture in Qatar and Moldova, living like the locals in Moldova, studying at an Indian ashram, enjoying the beauty of Bhutan, talking to those who were part of a happiness-inducing experiment in Slough (near Heathrow Airport in England), and exploring how some people find locales that fit their personalities better than others).

I didn't learn anything about happiness research that I hadn't read in more detail somewhere else, but I thought that his summary was a fair one.

My main disappointment concerning the book was the lack of exploring a devout Christian community to see how faith adds to happiness in that context.

As a travelogue, it was all great fun . . . but few of the places attracted my interest. I was intrigued, however, by what he had to say about Bhutan. I'll have to add Bhutan to my itinerary for future travels.

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what the travel books don't tell you

An interesting way of thinking about places you may want to visit and a critical understanding of cultures that organize reality in a different way. I loved Bhutan although their cultural icon is a bit startling and wouldn't go to Dubai on a bet. A fun read and an illuminating one.

An interesting, well-written jaunt through ten disparate cultures

In The Geography of Bliss Eric Weiner (who was a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio for a decade) visits ten different countries, interviewing locals and considering each country's cultural eccentrities with a view to identifying the factors that contribute to each population's happiness--or lack thereof. Weiner's itinerary is set to a large extent by data collected by the World Database of Happiness: yes, there is such a place, and it's housed in a nondescript building on the campus of Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Weiner's first stop on his grand tour. The author's quest leads him also to Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, Great Britain, and the United States. Not all of these places can boast a happy populace. If you play Which of These Countries Doesn't Belong with the above list, the most obvious odd man out is Moldova, a miserable country that Weiner visited more or less to cleanse his palate after too much sweetness and light. But this visit too is instructive, as he is able to come to some conclusions about why Moldovans are on the whole so wretched.

What's fascinating about Weiner's book is how different the cultures he writes about are, and how different some of the things that make them happy are. Sure, everybody's better off if they've got enough money to support themselves (though beyond "enough," money doesn't matter all that much), and having familial and community support is always a plus. But there do seem to be cultural differences once you get beyond these basics. A humorless interlocutor in Switzerland identified clean public restrooms as a source of Swiss happiness, for example, while the Moldovans Weiner spoke with named as their sole source of joy their country's fresh fruits and vegetables. In Thailand as a rule people eschew excessive thought--a light-heartedness that breeds contentment, while in India people revel in unpredictability.

Weiner's conclusions about the sources of happiness won't knock anyone off their chair, but that's not really the point: it's the journey, stupid! This armchair jaunt through ten disparate cultures is a great read, funny and interesting and well-written. Just the sort of book I like.

-- Debra Hamel

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Definite pageturner for mom with limited time

I'm a full-time mom with very little free time to read, and it takes me forever to finish a book, but this one is a gem, and I have trouble putting it down. I was inspired to get this book because I am a mom and have so often heard the cliché "I just want my kids to be happy" without much parental examination of its exact meaning. I think every parent should read this book. It's entertaining and thoughtful, and I feel as though it will help me in years to come.

reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

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