This highly original biography of a man who may well have been the world's first blogger was a very pleasant surprise. Using the life of Michel de Montaigne as a springboard, Bakewell touches on a wide range of topics and historical periods.

Montaigne, a 16th century landowner, magistrate, and mayor turned writer, authored a famous collection of essays on topics that interested him. Montaigne's stream of consciousness seems to have gone relatively unchecked as he took the reader to all sorts of places, many of which were marginally if at all connected with the essay titles. In "How to Live," which is also constructed as a series of essays, Bakewell explores Montaigne's life and philosophy, his influences and historical context, and the afterlife of his book of essays which were subject to all kinds of controversy as they were later banned by the Catholic church and had their authorship questioned. Bakewell achieves that elusive balance between educational and entertaining, managing with aplomb to inform readers without boring them. Her structure is unusual, and although non-linear books don't always work for me, this one did.

As a side point, reading this book also made me feel newly justified for my snarky review of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a book which inspired defensive goodreaders to claim that its critics simply "didn't understand the philosophy" or "missed things" about the book. Uh, no. Those of us who panned "Elegance of the Hedgehog" didn't necessarily "not get" its philosophy. Personally, I just thought that aside from being pseudo-profound, Barbery's philosophical ramblings didn't belong in a novel. The philosophical asides in "How to Live," in contrast, were very much in place and far more impressively articulated. If one can compare a novel to a work of non-fiction, "How to Live" is a far superior book which offers the reader a great deal more.

Read this book -- it's probably not the typical thing you'd pick up, but odds are you'll be happy you read it.