For me, especially the one on the US, it focused on such a small corner of each place that I couldn’t really get a good grasp on it. I was not very impressed with the chapter on Qatar or the one on the United States. Most of the chapters were really interesting, but some of them fell short. Asheville, NC is, apparently, a swingin place to live.In Slough, the setting of the original British show “The Office,” a psychologist came to make volunteers take a happiness conference in an attempt to make the whole town happier.Bhutan has a Gross National Happiness quotiant.I learned lots of little tidbits of knowledge that I will store into my list of Useless Facts that I pull out of nowhere when the conversation gets dull: I would love to visit Bhutan, and the description of the fairly idyllic politics there made it more appealing. The chapter on Bhutan was the most interesting. India is a contradiction, Britain is getting happier, Icelanders like their cozy spaces and the Thais are very devil-may-care. Qatar isn’t as happy as you might think, with all their money.
But this is not necessarily his fault, I’m just a little too optimistic is all.Īfter decades as an NPR war correspondant, visiting the unhappiest places in the world and letting his pessimism blossom and grow, Weiner decides that it’s time to find a little happiness. Eric Weiner was a little too much of a grump for me sometimes. I finally read them, and I’m afraid the book is not as fresh in my mind as I would like to adequately review it. The book was a quick read, but it just took me a long time to finally get this review up because I never got around to reading the last two chapters after I had to return it to the library.
(Except for in Moldova… everyone in Moldova is depressed, I have learned.) Each chapter is a country, following a nice formula of meeting the locals and meeting some expats who have found their happiness in their new home. He visits Iceland, Bhutan, India, Qatar, Switzerland, Thailand, Great Britain, the United States and Moldova (because it is the unhappiest place in the world). Based on a scale developed by so-called positive psychologists. The book, as the subtitle says, is One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World, and that’s exactly what he does. Between the clever title and the pretty cover I was sold. This is a book that was featured at my library and I just picked it up out of curiosity. The concept of The Geography of Bliss was a fascinating one.
0 kommentar(er)
