Yesterday afternoon, the author Alain de Botton posted a comment to the personal blog of critic Caleb Crain, who over the weekend had written unfavorably about his latest book in The New York Times Book Review. In his post, Mr. de Botton told Mr. Crain that he had “killed” his book’s Read More
Status Anxiety, by Alain de Botton. Pantheon, 306 pages, $24.
Alain de Botton approaches every subject like it’s virgin territory. At first this, can be disorienting: Am I reading a book, or grading the essay portion of the SAT? After a while, though, it gets a little
sad, like watching Vasco da Gama Read More
The Art of Travel , by Alain de Botton. Pantheon, 256 pages, $23.
In the last chapter of The Art of Travel , Alain de Botton invokes two late-18th-century works by the Frenchman Xavier de Maistre: Journey Around My Bedroom and Nocturnal Expedition Around My Bedroom . As the titles suggest, these volumes chronicle, Read More
