New Book

The new Alain de Botton book arrived in the post today. First impressions: surprisingly heavy for its size and smells very good. I'm already reading a book; it's some important fiction and I've been enjoying it. That will stop now. Reading it will become a chore. I will yearn for accessible de Botton wisdom while I drudge through some of the remaining chapters before giving up 150 pages from the end. De Botton – despite his many insights – did not foresee this. In this careless act of publishing (that is like a bolt of lighting cast down upon the world by one of the Greek gods he probably uses in many of his own analogies) he has destroyed something rare and precious in the life of this mortal – a readable and enjoyable important book. How much he still has to learn.