What is Alain de Botton's best-selling book?
250196#0
Alain de Botton, FRSL (; born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born British philosopher and author. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published "Essays in Love" (1993), which went on to sell two million copies. Other bestsellers include "How Proust Can Change Your Life" (1997), "Status Anxiety" (2004) and "The Architecture of Happiness" (2006).
Alain de Botton
250196#23
De Botton has described his relationship with his father as difficult, stating: "When I sold my first bestseller (and a million dollars was peanuts for my father) he was not impressed and wondered what I was going to do with myself." When his father died, his family was left a large trust fund, although de Botton says his income is derived solely from his own activities (book sales, speaking engagements, business consulting, The School of Life). Alain's stepmother Janet de Botton is a prominent patron of the arts and competition bridge player. De Botton lives in London with his wife, Charlotte, and their two children.
Alain de Botton
250196#15
In February 2014, de Botton published his fourteenth book, a title called "", a study of the effects of the news on modern mentality, viewed through the prism of 25 news stories, culled from a variety of sources, which de Botton analyses in detail. The book delved with more rigour into de Botton's analyses of the modern media which appeared in "Status Anxiety".
Alain de Botton
250196#12
In August 2009, de Botton applied to a competition advertised among British literary agents by BAA, the airport management company, for the post of "writer-in-residence" at Heathrow Airport. The post involved being seated at a desk in Terminal 5, and writing about the comings and goings of passengers over a week. De Botton was duly appointed to the position. The result was the book, "A Week at the Airport", published by Profile Books in September 2009. The book features photographs by the documentary photographer Richard Baker, with whom de Botton also worked on "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work".
Alain de Botton
250196#11
In "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work" (2009), de Botton produced a survey of ten different jobs, including accountancy, rocket science and biscuit manufacture. The book, a piece of narrative non-fiction, includes two hundred original images and aims to unlock the beauty, interest and occasional horror of the modern world of work. After a negative review of the book by "New York Times" critic Caleb Crain, de Botton posted a scathing ad hominem attack against Crain. He later apologized for his remarks.
Alain de Botton
250196#17
De Botton has written in a variety of formats to mixed response. Positive reviews of his books attest that he has made literature, philosophy and art more accessible to a wider audience.
Alain de Botton
8471120#1
The book attracted favourable attention from architects and architectural critics. In the "Boston Globe", the architectural critic Robert Campbell declared it the "best introduction to architecture" that he had ever read. There was favorable comment from UK, US and Australian critics. The book featured prominently in the film "500 Days of Summer", where it was the reading matter of choice for the protagonist. In recognition of his services to architecture with the book, the RIBA made Alain de Botton an honorary fellow of the Institute in February 2010.
The Architecture of Happiness
250196#8
This was followed by "The Consolations of Philosophy" in 2000. The title of the book is a reference to Boethius's "Consolation of Philosophy", in which philosophy appears as an allegorical figure to Boethius to console him in the period leading up to his impending execution. In "The Consolations of Philosophy", de Botton attempts to demonstrate how the teachings of philosophers such as Epicurus, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Seneca, and Socrates can be applied to modern everyday woes. The book has been both praised and criticized for its therapeutic approach to philosophy.
Alain de Botton
250196#21
In May 2009, de Botton launched a project called "Living Architecture" – which builds holiday rental houses in the UK using leading contemporary architects. These include Peter Zumthor, MVRDV, JVA, NORD and Michael and Patti Hopkins. The most recent house to be announced is a collaboration between the Turner-prize winning artist Grayson Perry, and the architecture firm FAT. The houses are rented out to the general public. De Botton, the creative director and chairman of Living Architecture, aims to improve the appreciation of good contemporary architecture – a task which is the practical continuation of his theoretical work on architecture in his book "The Architecture of Happiness". In October 2009, he was appointed an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), in recognition of his services to architecture.
Alain de Botton
44521260#6
Critical reception of the book has been mixed. It was the most-reviewed book of the week in January 2012, according to The Bookseller. David Brooks finds that the book makes atheism "kind of boring", like a "spiritual handicap". Terry Eagleton describes the book as an attempt to "hijack other people's beliefs, empty them of content and redeploy them in the name of moral order, social consensus and aesthetic pleasure". Angus Wood says that De Botton's proposed solutions feel "trite or feel crassly commercial", and that transferring the authoritarian methods of religion to a secular world looks "like indoctrination". Martha Gill, after reading Religion for Atheists, feels that "as a spiritual guide, de Botton offers as much opportunity for growth as a hard-boiled egg". Joe Winkler recommends A.C. Grayling's "The Good Book", "The Joys of Secularism", and Bertrand Russell's "A Free Man's Worship" over this book. Winkler finds the omission of positive psychology confusing in the book, and criticises De Botton's assumption that "because the mechanics used in a religious setting work, and have worked for thousands of years, they will work in a secular setting", and describes this assumption as naive at best and "slightly totalitarian" at worst. Despite his criticisms, Winkler recommends Religion for Atheists because he finds the book eloquent and thought-provoking. Christopher Hirst writes of the book: "De Botton has reduced religion to a mechanism", and describes the tone of the book as "bossy, but readable". James Croft describes the book as having a lack of balance, and under-valuing the achievements of humanity.
Barney Zwartz says "De Botton selects areas of need - community, kindness, education, tenderness, perspective, architecture and art - and draws out detailed, practical lessons." José Teodoro suggests the book is "subtly condescending in the way it demands that everything in our shared environment constantly remind us that we’re not alone in our anxieties and disappointments". The Economist, in a comparison with Roger Scruton's "The Face of God", writes that de Botton "often stretches a good idea beyond its elastic limit". John Armstrong regards this book as not being part of 'militant Atheism', not arguing whether religion is true or not, but looking at its effects in people's daily lives.
Stephen Cave, writing for the Financial Times regards a theme of "Religion for Atheists" to be "we are less grown-up than liberal societies assume we are and frequently in need of guidance, reassurance and tenderness". Richard Holloway, writing for the Literary Review notes that when examining the purpose of religion in life, "Along the way he rethinks the nature and purpose of higher education and national cultural policy." and feels that the audience of the book is "a lot of uneasy believers [who] will welcome it like a well of water in a dry place". Marc Mohan suggests that an "ideal reader" of this book would be a religious person who doubts, but is hesitant to stop being religious because they fear that a life without religion is a life without ethics. The Telegraph's Tom Payne writes that the author continues from Ovid's assertion on the utility of gods: "It’s useful that there are gods, and that’s why we believe in them". According to Payne, De Botton argues that religion provides useful boundaries, in addition to inspiring a sense of awe. Payne praises De Botton's prose and charm, but notes that De Botton seems to find libertarianism distasteful. Payne describes the book as being both prescriptive and optimistic, but sums it up in the book's central premise - the hope that religion can be made to 'really suit us'. Charles Moore, writing for The Telegraph, states that De Botton's purpose in the book is to study religions and learn from them. Moore states that De Botton "has an instinctively religious grasp of the power of paradox" in that the concept of original sin is depicted in the book as "comforting". Moore suggests that De Botton knows that his suggested secular solutions to the problems of life are "mostly a bit silly", and notes that while De Botton discusses failed attempts at secular religion, like August De Comte's, De Botton 'does not seem to ask himself why' they failed. For Moore, religious 'uses' come from the 'truth' at the heart of religions, and De Botton does not recognise this.
Religion for Atheists