The Geography of Bliss

Eric Weiner is a journalist who spent a decade as a foreign correspondent for NPR. As he says in the introduction, his work has taken him to some of the most unhappy places in the world. His journeys led him to the kind of stories that tug at your heart strings and make it into newspapers and magazines, but they also served to depress him.

So he decided to spend a year traveling the globe in search of happy places, and the people who are lucky enough to live in them. He admits that he's a grumpy person by nature and that happiness doesn't come easy to him. So he set off on a quest, like many before him,  to answer the question...what is the secret to happiness?

Unlike others before him, he didn't go to the philosophers. He chose instead to speak to ordinary people living ordinary lives in different parts of the world. His journeys took him to The Netherlands, Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova, Thailand, Great Britain, India, and back to America.

In the course of his travels he arrived at different and often contradictory answers to his question...money matters, but beyond a point it makes no difference, relationships are important, we need family and friends, religion can be a source of happiness, but the happiest countries in the world are not particularly religious, overthinking is a barrier to happiness and so is the endless quest to be happy...maybe sometimes, just being is enough?

This book is part philosophy and part travelogue.  What makes it special is the author's unique voice. He's a journalist by trade, so he has the curiosity, and the cynicism endemic to that profession. He writes with honesty tinged with a lively sense of humour,  and an engaging self-deprecation. This is a charming read.