The Geography of Bliss

Another $.25 rummage sale buy, Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World, tantalized me enough with the title that I decided to read it, being both a grump and an occasional misanthrope. Half travelogue, half study of happiness, I found that I didn't think the book did either particularly well.

Weiner, an NPR foreign correspondent, divides the book into ten countries that each illuminate some aspect of the eternal quest for happiness, be it the entrenched misery of Moldova or the promoted happiness of Bhutan. He asks provocative questions, like how do we quantify happiness or does the simple act of defining happiness make us less happy? Can a culture breed unhappiness? Can it create happiness? Does social and financial inequality create unhappiness? Does equality create happiness? If you've ever wanted to think about happiness on a policy scale, here's the book for you.

I guess I'd say the book is worth reading, but if you could only read one novel the entire year, this one would stay dusty on the shelf a little while longer.