What makes a house beautiful? Is it serious to spend your time thinking about home decoration? Why do people disagree about taste? And can buildings make us happy? In "The... more
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What makes a house beautiful? Is it serious to spend your time thinking about home decoration? Why do people disagree about taste? And can buildings make us happy? In "The Architecture of Happiness", Alain de Botton tackles a relationship central to our lives. Our buildings - and the objects we fill them with - affect us more profoundly than we might think. To take architecture seriously is to accept that we are, for better and for worse, different people in different places. De Botton suggests that it is architecture's task to render vivid to us who we might ideally be. Turning the spotlight from the humble terraced house to some of the world's most renowned buildings, de Botton considers how our private homes and public edifices - from those of Christopher Wren to those of Le Corbusier and Norman Foster - influence how we feel, as well as how we could learn to build in ways that would increase our chances of happiness. "The Architecture of Happiness" amounts to a beguiling tour through the philosophy and psychology of architecture.
Advantages: very interesting Disadvantages: none really
...This is a self-help manual. Go into any bookshop today and the shelves are crowded with self-help manuals promising easy fixes for everything from obesity to speaking infront of a crowd. DeBotton's book is a welcome change. Instead of the usual management jargon, AlainDeBotton draws his inspiration from within the rich vein of western philosophy. He explores problems such as not having enough money, unpopularity, a broken heart and so on, with the help of philosophers as diverse as Epicurus and Seneca, and Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.
AlaindeBotton's genuine talent, exemplified here is to show how philosophy is not just dry text but is something that is intensely practicle and that can help provide a balm (or consolation) for the presures of modern life. Any intelligent person will find something to admire in this book....
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Advantages: Claer, informative and thought-provoking Disadvantages: A bit basic for some perhaps
...Having enjoyed the Channel Four TV series I bought this book and have to recommend it. AlainDeBotton takes the ideas of some of the great philosophers and sets them out in a clear and easily understandable format which crucially puts them into a modern context to which readers can relate. In a world swamped with self help books and theories, it`s great to see that philosophy dealt with the same human problems years before can still benefit us today.
As an introduction to what is an often daunting subject this is an excellent volume which is both readable and thought-provoking, and more insightful and useful than any number of modern self help books. He begins quite basically and only covers a clutch of writers (if you want a broader introduction to philosophy then I would recommend Sophies World, another good book) but manages...
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Advantages: Great introduction to philosophy, a fascinating read Disadvantages: Can take a while to digest some of the ideas
...The thought of taking a holiday, spending time away from work and home - the scenes we know well, fills most of us with excitement and pleasure. We look forward to visiting places we consider more beautiful or which offer a more appealing lifestyle than our everyday experiences.
Television programmes, holiday brochures and guidebooks offer a wealth of recommendations on where to go and what to see when we get there. In this book, AlaindeBotton considers why we chose those destinations in the first place.
As well as personal observations made on his own travels, deBotton uses examples from classical writers and thinkers (e.g. Flaubert, Wordsworth) as well as paintings by Van Gogh and Turner (amongst others) to illustrate his arguments.
DeBotton examines such questions as why we are drawn to vast waterfalls or mountainous scenery...
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