Self-Help Prescription: A Double Dose of Culture

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

Unconventional Explorations: The Whys and Hows of Travel

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