Probably Switzerland, when I think about it seriously.

Iceland may have sounded fascinating, but if I had to choose any of the Weiner’s profiled countries as a home, I think it would come down to either the Netherlands or Switzerland. They’re still waiting for that person to be born. Icelanders joke that one day they will erect a statue in the center of Reykjavik to honour the one Icelander who never wrote a poem. Taxi drivers, college professors, hotel clerks, fishermen. Partly, this represents a kind of narcissism, since just about everyone isIcelandis writer or poet. Successful, struggling, published in books or only in your mind, it matters not. In Iceland, being a writer is pretty much the best thing you can be. I am not completely sold that it is a happy place to live (there is much made of its binge drinking culture) but its commitment to writers certainly made it sound appealing: Of all the places Weiner profiles, I was most fascinated byIceland. Countries with wide gaps between the rich and poor are no less happy than countries where the wealth is distributed more equally. He found that income distribution does not predict happiness. One finding, which Veenhoven just uncovered, has made him very unpopular with his fellow sociologists. Some of the happiest countries in the world –Iceland and Denmark, for instance – are homogenous, shattering the American belief that there is strength, and happiness, in diversity.

The happiest places, he explains, don’t necessarily fit our preconceived notions. I loved when, early on, Weiner visits Ruut Veenhoven, who runs the World Database of Happiness in the Netherlands. For a trivia geek like me, this was no where near sufficient. I would have loved to have been showered with data and statistics where Weiner only briefly alluded to a few studies and instead relies on his own limited observations and experiences in the countries he visits. For a surprisingly delightful contrast, he visits the very unhappy people of Moldova, proving that a pessimist like Weiner is at his best when given much to grumble about.įor me, the book was perhaps too personal, too subjective. From Iceland to Qatar, the Netherlands to India, Switzerland to America, Weiner visits a handful of countries that are either proven to be happy (by the statistically minded Dutch, who track such things) or have made happiness a priority (such as Bhutan, with its measurement of Gross National Happiness). In The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner, Weiner, a chronic pessimist and veteran NPR journalist, travels the world seeking out some of its happiest (and, for contrast, unhappiest) places.

The geography of bliss review