Alain de Botton

Thankfully half the book are illustrations, so it's only half as long as it seems. There's a legitimate conversation to be had about the lack of "third places" in society - this ain't it. The book is an uncritical look at 10 aspects from architecture to kindness, where religion is presented as having 'got it' and atheism/secular society has failed. Botton has some unexplained gripe with a libertarian boogeyman as well, presented as if they had some significant impact on society - most of the show more time it seems to be a stand-in for strikes against capitalism or consumerism.
The argumentation goes a little like; isn't architecture soulless and ugly? Aren't churches awe-inspiring and pretty? Atheism/libertarianism is wrong to deprive us of beauty and we should find ways of returning to tradition by having prettier buildings. The cause and effect is all over the place and who's being blamed for the status quo makes no sense whatsoever, and apparently the megachurches that look like malls or the hole in the wall prayer rooms don't count, only pretty churches do, and represent religion as a whole.
Art is similarly "stolen" from its religious contexts and this is bad because museum goers aren't worshipping the pictures, but maybe if we arrange art thematically (Botton helpfully includes detailed museum plans for this) then by walking through the "Gallery of Suffering", Compassion, Fear, Love and Self-Knowledge we can approach what the religious get out of the Stations of the Cross? Huh?
Now these gripes about the ugly modern world and returning to tradition are staples of far right opinion makers, as well as the calls for more "community" - Botton is presumably diametrically opposed to all that but doesn't make his argument any more coherent than those pining for the lost golden age.
Other missed swings includes a defense of the liberal arts against the commercialization of education, where somehow, mysteriously, religion is a beacon we should learn from when it comes to rounded education?
The book is far worse than the half-baked "dude what if" premises that tries to tie this together, it's so full of cherrypicking and outright nonsense, it's insulting to the reader. show less

Travel isn't always what it is cracked up to be. There is something about planning a trip that is inherently more delicious than actually taking the journey. Then afterwards when you get home, you find the time away did not live up to the expectation of all the planning. Alain de Botton invites you to travel in a way you have never considered before. When you finally arrive at your destination, he welcomes you to closely inspect your surroundings in ways you didn't know you could or should; show more to see beyond merely looking. Upon reading Art of Travel he makes you want to stand in the spot where van Gogh's little yellow house used to stand in Arles, France; where you'll find yourself a little sad it was destroyed in World War II. I could go on and on with other examples, but I think it's best to read the book. show less

In this delightful treatise, de Botton invites us to rethink work, to look at all that surrounds us and how much of it is the product of human thought and build, from the rotors that lie in the furnace to the tuna that travelled around the world to end up as a sandwich in a lunchbox. With humour and insightful observations, de Botton casts a philosopher's eye to all that we don't notice so that we look at the world with fresh, new eyes and a renewed sense of wonder. A wonderful read made show more easy by the numerous photos that illustrate the words. show less

I am very easily charmed by Botton, okay? He's very charming. On Love was charming. The way he intersperses this story of a fictional marriage with philosophy and relationship advice is charming. And if I hadn't read Dept. of Speculation in between reading this book and reviewing it, this would probably be a very different review.

First! I really did adore this novel when I as reading it. I read it on vacation, mostly in the car, and ended up reading long sections aloud to my husband -- show more mostly the sections on parenting. I think it did give me some valuable insights on how couples behave in conflict, enough to be grateful that neither my husband nor I experienced any great crises in attachment as children, and to make me possibly even more invested in protecting my children from such disruptions.

But, I did read Dept. of Speculation, which made me so viscerally furious about the way our society deals with men having extramarital affairs that some was bound to spill over onto this book. And that spillover is messy and tangled. I'm not even sure that I would have wanted Rabih to do anything differently -- to tell his wife or to leave her. In fact, as I was reading, I was a little irritated at how easily Botton seemed to take monogamy as the only possible natural state for couples.

I am going to try to let it go now.

Really, this was lovely and thoughtful and realistic and charming. show less