Geographer of Bliss

If you are a regular reader, you know I'm in a book group and we are reading The Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner.  We'll get together to discuss it next week, and I already know some of us love it (me) and some of us don't like it very much because 1) "I won't ever be able to go to those places" and/or 2) Weiner is sort of whiny, as he is well aware and mentions in the book.  I love his kind of whiny.

Anyhoo, at this point in our monthly-book game, I sometimes send along some questions for people to ponder as they finish up their reading or do a little re-reading (which I often have to do, having read some other books in the meantime).

So, because it is Slattern Day in the blog, and I am a slattern not planning to clean my house or do anything very productive today (oh, except that job interview), here are my previously typed questions for the book group, which cheered a couple of us yesterday in the surgery waiting room of a local hospital where one of us was actually having surgery.  (It went well.)  Generally, hospital rooms, waiting rooms, surgery and recovery rooms are not the happiest places to be, of course, but there was morphine. And a piano player: hymns + the "making whoopee" song.

Geography of Bliss Questions

Which country/countries appealed to you most?

Was that primarily due to the geography, climate, personality of the place, or the chapter title* attached to it?

*Chapter titles, for your convenience:

The Netherlands: Happiness is a Number

Switzerland: Happiness is Boredom

Bhutan: Happiness is a Policy

Qatar: Happiness is a Winning Lottery Ticket

Iceland: Happiness is Failure

Moldova: Happiness is Somewhere Else

Thailand: Happiness is Not Thinking

Great Britain: Happiness is a Work in Progress

India: Happiness is a Contradiction

America: Happiness is Home

Which country would you least like to visit, besides Moldova, a no-brainer, and why?

If you would like to go to Moldova, what is wrong with you?

Which countries appealed to you, even if you would not want to visit there, and why?

Have you been to any of these countries?  If so, how did your experience compare/contrast to Eric Weiner’s?

Is Eric Weiner any relation to Anthony Weiner.  If so, why?

A fun place to visit: [Eric Weiner's website] 

While there, you can tell Eric Weiner about your own happiest places, here.

What would make you happy, wherever you are?

What is the relationship between happiness and place?