Review first, giveaway details at the bottom!

Title: The Geography of Bliss
Author: Eric Weiner
Published: 2008
My edition: Twelve Books Paperback 2009
Purchased From: The Book Nook in Cadillac, Michigan
Pages: 335

Synopsis (from StrandBooks.com): Through over a decade spent traveling the globe and reporting on the world’s formost catastophes and triumphs, author and NPR foreign correspondent Eric Weiner is certainly no stranger to the planet and all of its highs and lows. Weiner, a self proclaimed ‘mope’ of the higest order, was growing sick of the widespread sorrows he’s come across in his travels and decided to set out on a journey to find the happiest place on earth. In “The Geography of Bliss” he takes readers on a journey unlike any other where they will see where people are happiest, and why. From Iceland to India and everywhere on the way back home this book is a joyously unpredictable adventure.

I read this because:
It caught my eye while used book shopping at The Book Nook. I’ve seen this book a lot since it came out, but for some reason was never inclined to actually pick it up and look at it. When I did, I had to buy it. I guess I hadn’t realized the format of the book was so cool – 10 different chapters that explore what makes people happy in 10 different countries. This seemed a lot more appealing than an unstructured book about what makes different people all over the world happy.

My thoughts: I’m partial to travel writing in general, and I loved the concept of exploring the happiness of different cultures: how happy they are and what type of lifestyle makes them happy. This book gives you a lot to think about on both subjects. However – this is not a self help book by any means; its goal is not to make you happier. But within its pages you end up thinking a lot about what makes you happy, and – even more interestingly – where you might be happy. I also loved that I learned more about these 10 countries in general, since many of them (like Moldova) are places I’m not very familiar with. Armchair traveling at its best.

Book club worthy? Absolutely, in fact – I’m hoping to talk my book club into reading it. There’s a lot that would make for good conversation on cultural differences and philosophies of happiness.

Follow up required: This book made me want to visit the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bhutan, and Thailand, and made me want to move to Iceland. In the immediate future I’d like to read more about Heathenism, along with more about Norse mythology. It also gave me a hankering for more travel writing, so I’ll probably pick up Bill Bryson’s The Lost Continent that I’ve been meaning to read.

You might like this book if you liked: Anything by Bill Bryson and/or travel writing.

Links to purchase: IndieBound, Strand, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, BookDepository.com

The Geography of Bliss GIVEAWAY:

I enjoyed this book a lot and thought an end of 2009 Book Giveaway would be the perfect opportunity to give someone else the chance to read it too.

Enter to win a new paperback copy of this book:
1. Leave a comment saying you want to enter the giveaway and share one thing that makes you happy. It could be as simple as “coffee” or as meaningful as you’d like.
2. Tweet or blog about the giveaway for an extra chance to win. Leave another comment here with the link to the tweet or blog post.

This giveaway is open to anyone in the 90+ countries that Book Depository ships to, since that’s how I’ll be sending it out. You can enter through 11:59pm EST on Friday, January 8, 2010. I’ll draw a winner on Saturday 1/9/10.

For anyone interested in the book I wrote about last week, State By State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, it’s reviewed in this week’s NY Times Book Review.

The review gives several examples of the essays, and it’s a good introduction to the content of the book.

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America

Matt Weiland

I was browsing the new book section in Borders during lunch this week, and I found a book called State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America.

The idea behind the book is that the editors, Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey, asked 50 writers to write about one of America’s 50 states. There’s a good variety of authors, including some of my favorites: Dave Eggers, John Hodgman, Sarah Vowell, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ann Patchett, and Alison Bechdel.

I read the Michigan essay, by Mohammed Naseehu Ali, while standing in Borders, and I really enjoyed it. It made me want to own the book so that I’d be able to open to any state at random and experience a little bit of Armchair Traveling.

The book was full price ($29.95) at Borders, so I didn’t buy it right away. I couldn’t resist it long though, I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday and got it, where it’s 20%, off plus my member discount. It’s also 34% off on Amazon.

According to the user reviews I read on Amazon, some of the state’s essays are dissapointing. That doesn’t really surprise me, with a collection of 50 essays some are bound to not be as wonderful.

If you want to see a full list of which author wrote about which state, it’s posted on the Amazon page for the book, if you scroll down a bit.

It’s also a beautiful book, with a fun map of the US on the end papers, and a section of full color glossy pictures pages in the middle. I’m considering getting more copies for christmas presents for my travel/book-loving friends and family.

Here’s the preview from Publisher’s Weekly:
Starred Review. Without leaving home or spending a cent on gas, readers of this book can enjoy a scenic view of the entire U.S. that is as familiar as it is disorienting. Weiland, deputy editor of the Paris Review, and Wilsey, editor-at-large for McSweeney’s, have gathered a group of 50 disparate voices to explore not just their experience in America, but the way each state was presented in the American Guide series of the Federal Writers Project in the 1930s, in which the Works Project Administration (WPA), as part of F.D.R’s New Deal, put more than 6000 American writers to work creating a portrait of this country. The editors wanted to make a book inspired by the ideals behind the WPA Guides but they also wanted something more personal, more eccentric, and more partial. Obvious heavy-hitters—Dave Eggars (Illinois), Rick Moody (Connecticut), Jhumpa Lahiri (Rhode Island), Barry Hannah (Mississippi), William T. Vollmann (California)—are included, as well as some wonderful surprises. Alison Bechdel’s illustrated story about her life after moving to Vermont brilliantly combines personal history with historical fact, as does Charles Bock’s essay on growing up and working in his parent’s Las Vegas pawnshop. Mohammed Naseehu Ali’s tale of life in Michigan, after moving there from Ghana as a teen, illuminates what the unconditionally generous Michigan nature shares with the traditions of his own Hausa-Islamic culture. And Franzen’s imaginary interview with the state of New York is perhaps the high point among this collection of beguiling summations of something all the writers share: a love-hate relationship with how their chosen state has changed and evolved during the course of their lives.

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)