Comments on: Looking for Happiness in a Travel Book http://perceptivetravel.com/blog/2008/02/24/looking-for-happiness-in-a-travel-book/ Travel stories, world music, travel books, and a close peek at unique destinations. Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:17:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 By: Antonia Malchik http://perceptivetravel.com/blog/2008/02/24/looking-for-happiness-in-a-travel-book/#comment-31074 Antonia Malchik Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:35:09 +0000 http://perceptivetravel.com/blog/2008/02/24/looking-for-happiness-in-a-travel-book/#comment-31074 What a lot of great points, Tim. The responses to this book remind me somewhat of responses to Alain de Boton's books (especially, in our context, The Art of Travel) -- as if reviewers aren't quite sure what they're meant to think about it, so end up going with a gut reaction. I would tentatively put out the idea that Weiner has hit on an extremely American issue: we seem to have this obsession with the idea that happiness (among other intangibles) comes from an exact formula, if only we could work out the details. This only came home to me when, as my mother-in-law was visiting from England recently, she asked in her very polite and gentle way, why it was that so many American women she meets spend so much of their time and energy reading self-help books and examining their psyches in therapy. To her, it seemed that American women in particular are never satisfied with their lives. I love the observation about the actual writing talent in this book. We could all learn from writers who know how to research ad nauseum and then write succinctly. What a lot of great points, Tim. The responses to this book remind me somewhat of responses to Alain de Boton’s books (especially, in our context, The Art of Travel) — as if reviewers aren’t quite sure what they’re meant to think about it, so end up going with a gut reaction.

I would tentatively put out the idea that Weiner has hit on an extremely American issue: we seem to have this obsession with the idea that happiness (among other intangibles) comes from an exact formula, if only we could work out the details. This only came home to me when, as my mother-in-law was visiting from England recently, she asked in her very polite and gentle way, why it was that so many American women she meets spend so much of their time and energy reading self-help books and examining their psyches in therapy. To her, it seemed that American women in particular are never satisfied with their lives.

I love the observation about the actual writing talent in this book. We could all learn from writers who know how to research ad nauseum and then write succinctly.

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