THE GEOGRAPHY OF BLISS: A happy and witty read

THE GEOGRAPHY OF BLISS: A happy and witty read

I first heard of this book when my mentor-priest, back when I was still having my master's course work talked about this in our research class. The author, Eric Weiner went around the world finding the happiest place on Earth, negotiating and emerging himself with different cultures to understand and to get the gist of the many perspectives of happiness. 

OK, I won't talk about the research methodology, moreso the academic merits of how this book came to be and what methodology the researchers used to measure happiness. Or can happiness really be measured? I'll leave that to those who eat statistics for breakfast. 

It's been a while since I read a book where I spit my coffee on it, dropped muffin crumble on it, write on it and most of all chuckle like crazy and look around sensing someone might be looking at me. This book just made me do all them without inhibitions. If you want a past time looking like crazy, well, in a witty way, I suggest you get a copy of this book.

I've read a lot of literature about Bhutan and how their King has made Happiness a National Policy, but Eric's narrative describing this place made me realize, my God I should be moving now and find that Shangri-La everyone has been longing and hope I won’t be missing to see and to be. In this account Weiner described Bhutan to be ... A place of eternal peace where monks meditate, poets muse, and everyone lives impossibly long and satisfying lives. I've read and I've seen a fair number of documentaries about Bhutan, but it’s only this book that made me settle and say, wow, maybe I can die here.

Another place he visited was Iceland. He described happiness here as failure. In a world where one is always measured not by his or her failures but by his or her success, I'm thinking I should spend the remaining years of my life in Iceland - I care less if I'll toil for six months in the dark, at least here, I'm free to fail and free to try again. 

This is one of my good reads this month, a spirit lifter, a witty pastime following the life of a dying coffee magnate in that book 'The Coffee Story'. 

If you're looking for a good travel book to keep you company, grab a copy of this book. It's a real witty read. Trust me, you'll thank me for this.

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