Globe Corner Blogs

The Author Eats Skyr Unaware of the Lurking Camera on a Bus Somewhere in Iceland

Iceland is often described as a magical place. And for the average tourist there – as opposed to the average banker these days – I would have to agree with that assessment. The ethereal landscape particularly lends itself to Lord of the Rings-type fantasies. Waterfalls spill down the green hills into valleys of pastel wildflowers and hot springs. Snow-capped volcanoes, seething sulfur pits, and the occasional fjord pop up every now and then. Don’t be ashamed if you envision yourself sporting chain mail and downing flagons of mead after a hard day of discovering North America and slaying dragons. It seems like one could make quite a living offering Viking reenactments or selling Merlin costumes. And apparently they do. Continue Reading »

The Geography of Bliss --by Eric Weiner

I should confess that this was the first book ever that made me feel something unusual towards the author. This time after finishing the last page I felt incredibly…grateful. The most unexpected feeling after putting down your read. The truth is I almost never take a book from a shelf just because I like the cover. This time the light-hearted picture of a paper plane made me open a copy; I immediately changed my mind about what I thought of the content a second before.

Measuring happiness, grasping the true meaning of it is definitely a tricky business. For example, we can’t even be sure that the word happiness means the same feeling, the same state of mind, in various cultures. We may think that there’s got to be a universal recipe for feeling good, but as it turns out every country has a slightly different approach toward defining bliss. I am very grateful for “the grump” who consulted the world’s happiness experts and then took the trouble to search for the happiest place, spinning out a whole new story of finding yourself. The discoveries along the way turned out to be quite unexpected, but invariably moving, funny, bizarre: they constantly made you reconsider your personal attitude toward happiness. This is a truly meaningful book.