The Geography of Bliss

Critical Praise

"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."
--AWidow.com

"Interesting book about places I will probably never see."
-Laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com

"Eric Weiner went to the far corners of the earth chasing happiness. Reading his book will help you examine what you need to be happy, and how far you are willing to go to get it. Or maybe help you realize that it's closer than you thought.
Bookreporter.com

"It's an entertaining read and great philosophical stimulation, from a talented and witty journalist."
Perceptivetravel.com

"Read this witty, insightful book, and you must visit the autho's website at www.ericweinerbooks.com. Here you will be able to enjoy a slideshow of the photos of Eric's incredible journey in the search for happiness."
-1340magbooks.com

"Eric Weiner may claim to be a grump but he has a dry witty sense of humor that shines through in his writings."
-Reviewyourbook.com

"This book is hard to put down. It will make you laugh out loud while you learn about other cultures, as well as yourself. This is one of those books that stays with you."
-- Curiousvillager.com

"Bliss is clever and well-written, but perhaps there is no there there. Elements of philosophy, yes, and some wry and self-deprecating humor plus keen observations that add up to an excellent travel piece."
--Internetreviewofbooks.com

"Having observed the contentment on people's faces in places like Bhutan and Thailand myself, I've often wondered what makes a happy life. I very much enjoyed Eric Weiner's search for answers and highly recommend his Geography of Bliss to happiness seekers and armchair travelers alike."
--Bookloons.com

"Think Don Quixote with a dark sense of humor and a taste for hashish and you begin to grasp Eric Weiner, the modern knight-errant of this mad, sad, wise, and witty quest across four continents. I won't spoil the fun by telling if his mission succeeds, except to say that happiness is reading a book as entertaining as this."
--Artsopolis.com

"Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destionations and dispositions."
--LlamaLlamabooks.com

"The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World" (Twelve), a memoir/travelogue by Eric Weiner, beautifully blends the timeless search for happiness with an amusing on-the-ground examination of the dispositions of people in 10 of the most (and least) contented countries on Earth."
--Gadling.com

"Laugh. Think. Repeat. Repeatedly. If someone told me this book was this good, I wouldn't believed them."
--Po Bronson, author of What Should I Do With My Life?

"With one single book, Eric Weiner has flushed Bill Bryson down a proverbial toilet, and I say that lovingly. By turns hilarious and profound, this is the kind of book that could change your life. The relationship between place and contentment is an ineffable one, and Weiner cuts through the fog with a big, powerful light. THE GEOGRAPHY OF BLISS is no smiley-face emoticon. It's a Winslow Homer."
-Henry Alford, author of Municipal Bondage and Big Kiss

"Eric Weiner, a correspondent for National Public Radio, has spent most of his professional life (including several years at The New York Times) covering misery: war, natural disasters and the like. For this book, his first, Mr. Weiner tried something different — happiness. "With our words, we subconsciously conflate geography and happiness," he writes in the introduction. "We speak of searching for happiness, of finding contentment, as if these were locations in an atlas, actual places that we could visit if only we had the proper map and the right navigational skills." Mr. Weiner's own navigational skills took him to places as far-flung as Qatar (living proof that money doesn't buy happiness), Iceland and Bhutan in search of joy."
-New York Times

"Part travelogue, part personal-discovery memoir and all sustained delight, this wise, witty ramble reads like Paul Theroux channeling David Sedaris on a particularly good day."
-Kirkus

"It is a wide, amusing and ultimately quixotic quest for Shangri-La. The reader, meanwhile, will be made happy enough by going along on this journey, and learn whether the grass is really greener far from home."
--Chicagotribune.com

"Think Don Quixote with a dark sense of humor and a taste for hashish and you begin to grasp Eric Weiner, the modern knight-errant of this mad, sad, wise, and witty quest across four continents. I won't spoil the fun by telling if his mission succeeds, except to say that happiness is reading a book as entertaining as this."
-Tony Horwitz, author of Confederates in the Attic

"Fortified with Eeyoreish fatalism—"I'm already unhappy. I have nothing to lose"—Weiner set out on a yearlong quest to find the world's "unheralded happy places." Having worked for years as an NPR foreign correspondent, he'd gone to many obscure spots, but usually to report bad news or terrible tragedies. Now he'd travel to countries like Iceland, Bhutan, Qatar, Holland, Switzerland, Thailand and India to try to figure out why residents tell "positive psychology" researchers that they're actually quite happy. At his first stop, Rotterdam's World Database of Happiness, Weiner is confronted with a few inconvenient truths. Contrary to expectations, neither greater social equality nor greater cultural diversity is associated with greater happiness. Iceland and Denmark are very homogeneous, but very happy; Qatar is extremely wealthy, but Weiner, at least, found it rather depressing. He wasn't too fond of the Swiss, either, uncomfortable with their "quiet satisfaction, tinged with just a trace of smugness." In the end, he realized happiness isn't about economics or geography. Maybe it's not even personal so much as "relational." In the end, Weiner's travel tales—eating rotten shark meat in Iceland, smoking hashish in Rotterdam, trying to meditate at an Indian ashram—provide great happiness for his readers."
-Publishers Weekly

"With happiness as filter and focus, Weiner paints incisive portraits of each place he visits . . . Weiner is a perceptive traveler, and he enlivens and deepens his narrative quest by seeking out knowledgeable locals and expats wherever he goes, allowing him to create an illuminating anecdotal topo map of each country's psychographic landscape. I finished The Geography of Bliss feeling like I had just taken a whirlwind tour of the world with an engaging and well-informed guide, utilizing an important and too often overlooked compass: happiness."
-Nationalgeographic.com