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No pictures for Sunday and Monday. Have the Epic Book Review of Doom instead.
This one was a gift from J, who knows me well enough to that I would enjoy this book, and also well enough to know that I would probably not buy it for myself. :o)
I have to say that on the whole, I don’t feel all that consoled. But I do feel very well informed, which is nothing to sneeze at. I enjoyed this – Alain de Botton’s style is very warm and friendly, and the set up is charming and includes lots of pictures, sometimes to illustrate a point, and sometimes just for giggles. Although he is clearly a great deal smarter than me, he is in no way condescending about it. I’m looking at you, Mr Chesterton.
The book is split into six sections, each providing consolation from a particular philosopher for a particular ill. I may possibly have gone a little crazy and ended up doing a chapter by chapter recap. I have no idea how that happened, except to cry temporary insanity. Feel free to tl;dr.
The sections are:
Consolation for Unpopularity – Socrates
Consolation for Not Having Enough Money - Epicurus
Consolation for Frustration - Seneca
Consolation for Inadequacy - Montaigne
Consolation for a Broken Heart - Schopenhauer
Consolation for Difficulties – Nietzsche
It’s quite a line up.
( Unpopularity )
( Not Having Enough Money )
( Frustration )
( Inadequacy )
At this point we move to more modern philosophers (by which I mean C19-20). The opening sections of both these chapters are fairly amusing, as the writer begins with why you might write them off if you knew a bit about them. Schopenhauer was an emo whinger (“Arthur Schopenhauer is born in Danzig. In later years he looks back on the event with regret: ‘We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.’”) and Nietzsche was an arrogant arse (“’It is my fate to have to be the first decent human being,’ he recognised with a degree of embarrassment in the autumn of 1888. ‘I have a terrible fear that I shall one day be pronounced holy’”. Aw yeah.
( A Broken Heart )
( Difficulties )
This one was a gift from J, who knows me well enough to that I would enjoy this book, and also well enough to know that I would probably not buy it for myself. :o)
I have to say that on the whole, I don’t feel all that consoled. But I do feel very well informed, which is nothing to sneeze at. I enjoyed this – Alain de Botton’s style is very warm and friendly, and the set up is charming and includes lots of pictures, sometimes to illustrate a point, and sometimes just for giggles. Although he is clearly a great deal smarter than me, he is in no way condescending about it. I’m looking at you, Mr Chesterton.
The book is split into six sections, each providing consolation from a particular philosopher for a particular ill. I may possibly have gone a little crazy and ended up doing a chapter by chapter recap. I have no idea how that happened, except to cry temporary insanity. Feel free to tl;dr.
The sections are:
Consolation for Unpopularity – Socrates
Consolation for Not Having Enough Money - Epicurus
Consolation for Frustration - Seneca
Consolation for Inadequacy - Montaigne
Consolation for a Broken Heart - Schopenhauer
Consolation for Difficulties – Nietzsche
It’s quite a line up.
( Unpopularity )
( Not Having Enough Money )
( Frustration )
( Inadequacy )
At this point we move to more modern philosophers (by which I mean C19-20). The opening sections of both these chapters are fairly amusing, as the writer begins with why you might write them off if you knew a bit about them. Schopenhauer was an emo whinger (“Arthur Schopenhauer is born in Danzig. In later years he looks back on the event with regret: ‘We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.’”) and Nietzsche was an arrogant arse (“’It is my fate to have to be the first decent human being,’ he recognised with a degree of embarrassment in the autumn of 1888. ‘I have a terrible fear that I shall one day be pronounced holy’”. Aw yeah.
( A Broken Heart )
( Difficulties )