“Another book on happiness?” grumbled my wife. “It’s kind of hard not to take it personally.” Well, yes, I suppose technically it is, and it’s true that I read it right on the heels of Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert. But neither of them are self-help books for glee addicts looking for a fix. The first one, as you remember, is about how the brain works, and this one is comparative cultural anthropology, and entertaining coursework at that.

Written by Eric Weiner, it is a humorous and insightful journey through some of the happiest and unhappiest countries in the world, starting with the Netherlands, where the World Database of Happiness resides. Seriously. He opens with a history of the relatively young subspecialty of sociology that studies happiness, puts it in context with the philosophy of the ancients, then sits down with the database and compiles a global itinerary, finding out the wheres and whys of happiness.

Gilbert’s book (Stumbling on Happiness) studied the phenomenon in the small, using captive groups of college students over and over again in tightly controlled experiments. Weiner studies it in the large, setting entire cultures, nations, and histories side by side. I have to say that Weiner is more fun to read. The chapters are organized by nation, with names like: “Switzerland: Happiness is Boredom,” “Qatar: Happiness is a Winning Lottery Ticket,” “Moldova: Happiness is Somewhere Else,” and so on.

Despite the dramatic differences in how each culture defines, pursues, and defends happiness, some common threads do appear. One of the most memorable is the apparently universal enemy of happiness: envy. This is not to say that envy is the only thing that will make you unhappy, but it’s the one that is guaranteed to do so. Score one for the old practice of counting one’s blessings, as well as other habits of gratitude, most of which have the side effect of helping you to avoid wanting things that you don’t have.

The most steadfast friend of happiness turns out to be trust, whether or not the object of your trust really merits it. (There’s a balance, obviously, because poverty and ill health are also enemies of happiness if stark enough.) But it does say that extreme measures of self-protection are also routes to unhappiness.

The book is much more entertaining than this simple summary, though; I definitely recommend reading it for yourself. Weiner’s writing flows well and he opens up each country in a way that makes it hard to put down. Like any book that lifts you out of your own culture, you come to the end of it seeing your home and yourself more clearly.