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The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
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Author
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Eric Weiner.
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Publisher
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Twelve/QPB
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Format
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paperback
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Product Dimensions
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8.2
x
5.5
x
1
inches
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ISBN
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9780739499153
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Pages/Publication Date
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329/2008
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Daedalus Item Code
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11506
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Sale Price:
$4.98
$3.98
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Description
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"In the last two decades, psychologists and economists have learned a lot about happiness, including who's happy and who isn't. The Dutch are, the Romanians aren't, and Americans are somewhere in between. Eric Weiner—a peripatetic journalist and self-proclaimed grump—wanted to know why. So with science as his compass, he spent a year visiting the world's most and least happy places, and the result is a charming, funny and illuminating travelogue.... From the Persian Gulf to the Arctic Circle, Weiner discovers that happiness blooms where we least expect it. Who knew that the long, dark Icelandic winter gives rise to a magical, communal culture that has done away with envy and sobriety? Or that the Thais so prize 'fun' that their government has created a Gross Domestic Happiness Index to ensure they get enough of it? Or that Moldovans are miserable because they 'derive more pleasure from their neighbor's failure than their own success'? Or that the wealthy citizens of Qatar lead pampered, joyless lives in a 'gilded sandbox' while the poor citizens of Bhutan are cheerfully obsessed with archery tournaments, penis statues and feeding marijuana to their fat (and presumably happy) pigs? But Weiner does more than report on the lifestyles of the delighted and despondent. He participates—meditating in Bangalore, visiting strip clubs in Bangkok and drinking himself into a stupor in Reykjavik. These cultural forays are entertaining, but the real focus of his story is on the people he meets in cafés and on buses, the people who rent him rooms and give him directions, the people whose conversations, confessions and silences reveal the deep truths about their lands and lives."—Washington Post
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