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Alain de Botton

Goodreads Author

Born

in Zurich, Switzerland

Website

http://www.alaindebotton.com

Genre

Nonfiction

Influences

Seneca, Marcel Proust, Montaigne, Stendhal, Gustave Flaubert

Member Since

June 2007

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/alaindebotton

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Alain de Botton is a writer and television producer who lives in London and aims to make philosophy relevant to everyday life. He can be contacted by email directly via www.alaindebotton.com

He is a writer of essayistic books, which refer both to his own experiences and ideas- and those of artists, philosophers and thinkers. It's a style of writing that has been termed a 'philosophy of everyday life.'

His first book, Essays in Love [titled On Love in the US], minutely analysed the process of falling in and out of love. The style of the book was unusual, because it mixed elements of a novel together with reflections and analyses normally found in a piece of non-fiction. It's a book of which many readers are still fondest.

Bibliography:
* Essays ...more

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Alain de Botton’s books

Average rating: 3.87 · 152,321 ratings · 14,399 reviews · 70 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Course of Love 4.05 avg rating — 23,087 ratings — published 2016 — 56 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Art of Travel 3.82 avg rating — 19,551 ratings — published 2002 — 64 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Consolations of Philosophy 4.01 avg rating — 21,058 ratings — published 2000 — 85 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	On Love 3.98 avg rating — 20,194 ratings — published 1993 — 95 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How Proust Can Change Your Life 3.76 avg rating — 13,444 ratings — published 1997 — 83 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Status Anxiety 3.91 avg rating — 11,943 ratings — published 2004 — 60 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Architecture of Happiness 3.86 avg rating — 9,280 ratings — published 2006 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion 3.65 avg rating — 8,778 ratings — published 2011 — 55 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work 3.62 avg rating — 4,909 ratings — published 2008 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary 3.54 avg rating — 3,709 ratings — published 2009 — 32 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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"In Bed" with Alain de Botton

Adolescents who can't get a date are in a uniquely privileged position: They will have the perfect chance to get grounding in world literature. The...

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Alain Botton is now friends with Ralph Grayden
Jul 24, 2012 10:35AM · 3 likes · like
Alain Botton made a comment in the group Alain de Botton — Question to Alain de Botton topic " I think one can drop in that people now communicate in new ways without that necessarily unbalancing everything: ie. when the telephone was invented, ...more "
Oct 27, 2010 02:46AM
Alain Botton made a comment in the group Alain de Botton — Are you teaching these days? topic " I started off writing books because it was the cheapest and easiest option. All i needed was a desk and a computer. I despaired of being able to be 'm ...more "
Oct 25, 2010 02:46AM
Alain Botton made a comment in the group Alain de Botton — On Writing topic " I'm delighted. To answer you honestly, I sometimes don't deal with the difficulties of the writing life well. It is incredibly risky, lonely and frigh ...more "
Oct 24, 2010 01:24PM
Alain Botton made a comment in the group Alain de Botton — Thanks and a comment for Alain de Botton topic " Thanks so much - yes, that continues to be my dream, to be the writer-in-flight. If anyone knows the CEO of British Airways or American Airlines... "
Oct 22, 2010 01:29AM
Alain Botton made a comment in the group Alain de Botton — A Week at the Airport topic " Judy wrote: "Dear Alain I specially liked your comments on baggage, those who wait at the carousels and the scene in the arrivals hall with "chiefs of ...more "
Oct 22, 2010 01:28AM
Alain Botton joined the group Alain de Botton
Sep 24, 2010 04:32AM · 6 likes · like
Alain Botton rated a book it was amazing An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 12, 2008 09:07AM · 19 likes · like
Alain Botton rated a book it was amazing Deceit, Desire and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure by René Girard	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 12, 2008 08:00AM · 12 likes · like
Alain Botton rated a book really liked it What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 10, 2008 06:33AM · 15 likes · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

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Quotes by Alain de Botton

“Most of what makes a book 'good' is that we are reading it at the right moment for us.”
― Alain de Botton

tags: books, reading, right-moment, timing

714 likes

“Intimacy is the capacity to be rather weird with someone - and finding that that's ok with them.”
― Alain de Botton

tags: intimacy, relationships, weirdness

465 likes

“The moment we cry in a film is not when things are sad but when they turn out to be more beautiful than we expected them to be.”
― Alain de Botton

tags: emotions, film, humanity, philosophy

451 likes

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Polls

Alain de Botton is writing A Week At The Airport A Heathrow Diary live at Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport the week of August 17, 2009. What do you think?

Cool

114 votes, 73.5%

Silly airport publicity stunt

22 votes, 14.2%

Weird

10 votes, 6.5%

Something else (tell us in comments!)

9 votes, 5.8%

155 total votes

7 comments

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