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Happy: Secrets to Happiness from the Cultures of the World
It's time to get happy!
All around the world, people find ways to make sense of their lives and environments, little secrets to making life easier and more enjoyable.
Like letting go of the little things at the Lantern Festival in Thailand. Or learning to accept transience by making sand mandalas in Tibet. Break out of your own bubble with the Italian tradition of passeggiata, or celebrate the fruit of your labour like the Barbadians at the exhilarating Crop Over festival.
Happy brings these cultural secrets together and shows you how to apply them at home to bring a little bit of lightness to your day. And your life!
All around the world, people find ways to make sense of their lives and environments, little secrets to making life easier and more enjoyable.
Like letting go of the little things at the Lantern Festival in Thailand. Or learning to accept transience by making sand mandalas in Tibet. Break out of your own bubble with the Italian tradition of passeggiata, or celebrate the fruit of your labour like the Barbadians at the exhilarating Crop Over festival.
Happy brings these cultural secrets together and shows you how to apply them at home to bring a little bit of lightness to your day. And your life!
Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2013
About the author
Lonely Planet
4,111 books947 followersOUR STORY
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. One hundred million guidebooks later, Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel guide publisher with content to almost every destination on the planet.
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. One hundred million guidebooks later, Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel guide publisher with content to almost every destination on the planet.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 20, 2016
Good quick read on what people do around the world
October 21, 2021
Just making my way through the books I’ve had on my shelf for years.. this was a nice little one to pick up. Perfect to thumb through on a day you feel like you need a jolt of positivity. However, it’s too small a selection! I wanted so many more cultural traditions, more rituals, or even more explanation about their origins. It’s a great little taster, but I enjoyed the concept so much I just wanted more out of it.
January 19, 2018
Increíble!!!! Me encanto, se me hace un libro que puedes usar cuando necesites hacer algo que te haga sentir mejor, lo puedes tomar y ver cualquier página y hacer algo que te haga sentir más feliz! Padrísimo! 💖
October 12, 2019
An interesting book but quite a narrow selection of countries. Nothing from Persia/Iran? That’s hilarious.
April 23, 2015
Happy the book is from the travel site Lonely Planet dot com; I'd love to book my travel arrangements and accommodations with them, and experience Secrets to Happiness from the Cultures of the World for myself.
What a nice little book! The lovely yellow cover features a dye strike of the word "happy" in shiny metallic lucky red. Back cover tells us "It's time to get happy"! I realize every product description everywhere includes dimensions, but like several other reviewers I didn't read that far on the amazon page and assumed this happy book was at least half again as large, approximately the size of a lot of other fun giftable books I've seen, own, and given.
Three main sections reveal The Secrets related to Mind, Body, and Spirit. Full-colour photographs, sketches, hard edge graphics, and other types of drawings fill the left side of each page that tells what the life-changing "secret" is, what the tradition is, and where it's celebrated—not always exclusively in that place, but often that's the country of origin. Rather than quoting from sages or scriptures, the authors briefly describes a variety of generically cultural, religious, holiday, and other customs worldwide. Although I could read the text easily enough in natural light, I'm with other reviewers who complained about the tiny point size that comes across as begrudging! In fact, despite the ultra-small book format, threes enough space to make the type a little larger.
Layout and content probably are close to four stars, but I've deducted a star because the size simply is not sufficiently generous.
What a nice little book! The lovely yellow cover features a dye strike of the word "happy" in shiny metallic lucky red. Back cover tells us "It's time to get happy"! I realize every product description everywhere includes dimensions, but like several other reviewers I didn't read that far on the amazon page and assumed this happy book was at least half again as large, approximately the size of a lot of other fun giftable books I've seen, own, and given.
Three main sections reveal The Secrets related to Mind, Body, and Spirit. Full-colour photographs, sketches, hard edge graphics, and other types of drawings fill the left side of each page that tells what the life-changing "secret" is, what the tradition is, and where it's celebrated—not always exclusively in that place, but often that's the country of origin. Rather than quoting from sages or scriptures, the authors briefly describes a variety of generically cultural, religious, holiday, and other customs worldwide. Although I could read the text easily enough in natural light, I'm with other reviewers who complained about the tiny point size that comes across as begrudging! In fact, despite the ultra-small book format, threes enough space to make the type a little larger.
Layout and content probably are close to four stars, but I've deducted a star because the size simply is not sufficiently generous.
August 6, 2014
My first Lonely Planet book and I found this REALLY amazing. The first lines of the book made me fall in love with it and I knew it is going to be an awesome experience diving into it. This book has not only made me familiar with unique customs or traditions people practise so to be happy but also has re-instigated my interest in travelling. I believe now that happiness in travel comes from the moments when one is aware how lucky he is to be in that place, at that time, and how wonderful the world is!
July 16, 2016
"Une histoire celebre raconte les aventures de deux enfants partis courir le monde a la recherche de l'oiseau bleu, pour finalement le decouvrir, a leur retour, dans leur propre jardin. L'oiseau bleu symbolise bien sur le bonheur. Bonheur que l'on ne trouve que lorsqu'on cesse de le chercher, dit la morale de l'histoire."
April 25, 2015
This review can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com or Amazon.com as part of the Vine program.
August 8, 2016
Short book with plenty of little tips to help you lead a happy life. I can see that some readers would find the advice quite useful.
December 19, 2015
I loved the difference practices introduced~ *sprinkles joy dust to Earth*
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews