In February 2014, de Botton published his fourteenth book, a title called The News: A User's Manual, a study of the effects of the news on modern mentality, viewed through the prism of 25 news stories, culled from a variety of sources, which de Botton analyses in detail. The book delved with more rigour into de Botton's analyses of the modern media that appeared in Status Anxiety. Sunday Times Rich List". Thesundaytimes.co.uk. 1999. Archived from the original on 31 December 2010 . Retrieved 7 February 2014. , 1999 Sunday Times Rich List now behind a paywall Jim Holt (10 December 2006). "Dream Houses". The New York Times . Retrieved 6 April 2008. Like de Botton's previous books, this one contains its quota of piffle dressed up in pompous language.

de Botton, Alain (24 December 2011). "An atheist at Christmas: Oh come all ye faithless". The Guardian. London. Naomi Wolf (March 2009). "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton". The Times. London . Retrieved 11 July 2009. ...this book examining "work" sounds often as if it has been written by someone who never had a job that was not voluntary, or at least pleasant. He has one sister, Miel, and they received a secular upbringing. [7] Alain spent the first twelve years of his life in Switzerland where he was brought up speaking French and German.

In May 2009, de Botton launched a project called "Living Architecture," [40] which builds holiday rental houses in the UK using leading contemporary architects. These include Peter Zumthor, MVRDV, JVA, NORD and Michael and Patti Hopkins. The most recent house to be announced is a collaboration between the Turner-prize winning artist Grayson Perry, and the architecture firm FAT. The houses are rented out to the general public. De Botton, the creative director and chairman of Living Architecture, aims to improve the appreciation of good contemporary architecture—a task that serves as a practical continuation of his theoretical work on architecture in his book The Architecture of Happiness. In October 2009, he was appointed an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), in recognition of his services to architecture. [41] Museum displays [ edit ]

The novel begins with their meeting on a flight, which sounds clichéd but it captures the surprise and coincidence love can bring. The characterisation of the speaker depicts him as a clearly highly intelligent and profound man, whose analytical thinking allows us directly into his mind and how well he can breakdown and evaluate love. As the chapters progress, so too does the relationship, which starts off awkward but grows and grows into a strong adoration for one another. His observations of the little mannerisms and physical attributes of Chloe which he found to be beautiful were extremely poignant, as are the moral questions he asks about love such as “If she really is so wonderful, how could she love someone like me?” and “Is it not my right to be loved and her duty to love me?”Since reading The Consolations Of Philosophy and Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton, I've been on the look out for more of his books. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, they fall out of love. Between these major beats, Alain de Botton traverses enough philosophical ground to make that old story entirely his own. It's a love story, of course, but it's intellectual more than it is romantic. It's not about some guy's fortunate/unfortunate heart, it's about a brain (with an impressive classical education) trying to come to terms with said heart.

He has his own production company, Seneca Productions, which makes television documentaries based upon his works. [22] Reception of his writing [ edit ] Perhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we cannot properly speak until there is someone who can understand what we are saying in essence, we are not wholly alive until we are loved. The relationship is that of a nameless, male narrator, who is an over-thinker, and Chloe, a highly-strung, high-maintenance, young woman. Although the affair is very petty bourgeois (they meet on a plane from Paris, have dates at art galleries and pretentious restaurants and argue about literature), it represents some common stages of many relationships, the expectations, emotions, miscommunication and various other pitfalls.That’s the whole plot and it holds one’s attention. The characters live: the narrator, introvert, analytical, fastidious, alarmingly well-read and indefinably old-fashioned; and Chloe, modern, extrovert, relaxed, relentlessly unsentimental. He loves the films of Eric Rohmer, she hates them. The author is very good at getting across what it is that attracts the hero (his alter ego?) to Chloe: her generosity, her self-deprecation, her throw-away charm, expressed through the way she talks. The dialogue is convincing and engaging.