Geography of Bliss

一個愛發牢騷的作家。十個國家。
有哪個地方能讓他快樂起來嗎？

　　很多作家試著告訴我們快樂是什麼，卻很少作家告訴我們快樂在「哪裡」、為什麼某地方的人比別的地方快樂、為什麼換地方就能換心情。

　　艾瑞克．魏納說自己是個鬱鬱寡歡的人，他長期擔任美國國家公共廣播電台的海外特派員，過去二十多年來，採訪過三十多國發生的災難與弊端，但在這本書裡，他要講另一面的故事。在新興學科「正面心理學」的引導下，魏納造訪了全球幾個最滿足的地方：快樂與悲慘比鄰而居的印度；國王把國民快樂毛額當國家首務的不丹；居民深信嫉妒是快樂最大敵人的瑞士；儘管嚴寒、偏遠、挫敗連連，卻是全世界最快樂的地方之一的冰島。而作者發現，這是有原因的。

　　探索全球的過程中，魏納藉助「自助工業集團」的集體智慧來尋找快樂之道，那些哲學家、作家和追求者的真知灼見，成了他這趟昂揚之旅的索引地圖，很少有旅遊書籍作家能把作者的心靈旅程，寫得跟外在旅程一樣意義深遠卻又有趣的。書中不時有發人深省的字句，很少書敢設下它這樣的目標，更少書能達成它所達到的目標：這本書會讓你變得更快樂。

　　★本書中譯本《尋找快樂之國》由天下文化出版

　　What makes a nation happy? Is one country's sense of happiness the same as another's? In the last two decades, psychologists and economists have learned a lot about who's happy and who isn't. The Dutch are, the Romanians aren't, and Americans are somewhere in between...After years of going to the world's least happy countries, Eric Weiner, a veteran foreign correspondent, decided to travel and evaluate each country's different sense of happiness and discover the nation that seemed happiest of all.Eric Weiner discovers the relationship between money and happiness in tiny and extremely wealthy Qatar (and it's not a good one). He goes to Thailand, and finds that not thinking is a contented way of life. He goes to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, and discovers they have an official policy of Gross National Happiness! He asks himself why the British don't do happiness? In Weiner's quest to find the world's happiest places, he eats rotten Icelandic shark, meditates in Bangalore, visits strip clubs in Bangkok and drinks himself into a stupor in Reykjavik. Full of inspired moments, "The Geography of Bliss" accomplishes a feat few travel books dare and even fewer achieve: to make you happier.

作者簡介

艾瑞克．魏納(Eric Weiner)

　　擔任美國全國公共廣播電台海外特派員達十年之久，曾留駐新德里、耶路撒冷和東京，報導過三十多國的新聞。他也曾擔任該公司駐紐約和邁阿密特派員，目前則派駐華盛頓特區。魏納曾任《紐約時報》記者，與史丹佛大學的奈特新聞學者（Knight Journalism Fellow）。他的評論文章散見《洛杉磯時報》、網路雜誌《岩頁》（Slates）和《新共和雜誌》（The New Republic）等刊物。探訪過全世界後，他定居華府，好像挺快樂的，時間不是花在客廳，就是廚房。

　　Eric Weiner spent a decade as a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio in the US. He has been based in New Dehli, Jerusalem and Tokyo and has reported from more than thirty countries. He's also served as a correspondent for NPR in New York, Miami and, currently, Washington D.C. Weiner is a former reporter for the New York Times and a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. After travelling the world, he has settled quasi-happily, in the Washington area, where he divides his time between his living room and his kitchen.