46 ratings | 0 reviews | avg rating:4.57

#28 most followed

Alain de Botton’s Followers (9,051)

More followers…

Alain’s Bookshelves

read (52)
currently-reading (0)
to-read (0)

Alain’s Friends (173)

Jason Jordan

1,558 books | 1,752 friends

Sujata

405 books | 4 friends

Rachelle Bronson

381 books | 949 friends

466 books | 8 friends

Katie

1,656 books | 145 friends

Karl Nehring

1,016 books | 64 friends

Neslihan Elagöz

606 books | 155 friends

Eileen

856 books | 322 friends

More friends…

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

edit data

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

Combine Editions
Alain de Botton’s books

Average rating: 3.87 · 146,970 ratings · 13,823 reviews · 70 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Art of Travel 3.82 avg rating — 19,223 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 Course of Love 4.05 avg rating — 21,863 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 Consolations of Philosophy 4.01 avg rating — 20,338 ratings — published 2000 — 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
	On Love 3.98 avg rating — 19,605 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 — 13,168 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 — 11,390 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 — 9,047 ratings — published 2006 — 7 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 3.64 avg rating — 8,590 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 — 4,847 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 — 3,668 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

More books by Alain de Botton…

Related News

"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...

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

rss
Alain’s Recent Updates

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 ...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 ...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 · 13 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

More of Alain's books…

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

705 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

459 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

445 likes

See all Alain de Botton's quotes »

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

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Next Best Boo...: Jason's 2009 Good (and not so good) Reads	26	539	Nov 14, 2009 06:03PM
Challenge: 50 Books: Nonodisco's 2010 50	2	76	Feb 06, 2010 07:44PM
The Life of a Boo...: Jennifer N's 2011 TBR Reading Challenge	5	27	Dec 31, 2010 03:20PM
Challenge: 50 Books: Gozde V's 50 books for 2011!	39	147	Sep 21, 2011 06:49AM
The Seasonal Read...: Summer Challenge 2012: Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2662	855	Aug 31, 2012 09:02PM
UK Book Club: Em's Genre Challenge	107	169	Dec 13, 2012 08:53AM
The Most Awesome ...: * Adding Folders for Your Favourite Authors	12	24	Jan 23, 2013 10:39AM
The Seasonal Read...: 20.8 – It’s My Birthday! - Sue Q's task: Beginnings and Endings	18	84	Jul 23, 2013 02:53PM