The Geography of Bliss (2008)

After years as a foreign correspondent for NPR, self-described grump Weiner sought some happy destinations for a change. The resulting book, The Geography of Bliss — part travelogue, part inquiry into the nature of contentment — takes him to 10 countries, from Holland to Qatar to Bhutan, which measures its people's Gross National Happiness. He encounters many supposed roads to bliss: drugs, wealth, meditation, rotten shark meat (apparently a delicacy in Iceland). Occasionally lapsing into generalizations and glibness, Eric Weiner's book may not induce bliss, but it offers engaging, thought-provoking armchair traveling. B