THIS BOOK IS A FAVOURITE AMONG MY LITTLE SISTER AND HER FRIENDS. IT'S LIKE MIFFY. ADORABLE LITTLE ANIMALS WITH NO WORDS AT ALL. IT'S ULTRA DURABLE AND SMALL. MY LITTLE SISTER CARRIES IT IN HER POCKET WHEREVER SHE GOES!!!!

This book is different. It is long and tall with sturdy flaps that open. Each flap shows a part of something and your child can guess what the big object is. This is a tough concept for a young child. It is like doing a puzzle... You will experience your child's delight when he or she correctly figures out what is beneath the flaps. This is definately an "interactive" book. This book makes an excellent birthday or holiday gift for a 2 year old. Highly recommended.

I came to this book via de Botton's novels and How Proust Can Change Your Life, his previous effort at distilling a dense literary morass into something fresh and alive. As with that previous book, de Botton takes writings I would probably never approach on my own, and mines them for bon mots and ideas to console the modern reader. In seeking to return philosophy to the masses and demonstrate it's relevance to everyday life he takes six of life's dark areas and finds a philosophically-based "consolation" for each. It's an interesting approach, one de Botton compliments and flavors with his own delicate and understated humorous prose.

For unpopularity, be offers Socrates, who suggests we look at the logic behind others dislike for us, and if we find it flawed (as we likely will if we are good and honest people), we shall be consoled. Of course, since we often inexplicably crave the approval of people who aren't particularly stable, this approach may not be very useful. But that's another problem altogether. For poverty, de Botton has us consider Epicurus, who believed one needed nothing more than to be surrounded by good friends, decent food, shelter, intellectual stimulation, and-most importantly and problematically for the modern reader-to remove oneself from a position of having to work for someone. In this last condition, one meets the rub of the consolation that many of us may find problematic in a modern capitalist economy (although not one de Botton need worry about, as he apparently just inherited something like half a billion dollars from his father's estate). Schopenhauer's consolation for a broken heart doesn't work as well as the other sections, especially if one starts to add same-sex relationships to the discussion. Montaigne on inadequacy is kind of funny but unmemorable. Seneca on frustration is probably holds up the best: if you have more realistic expectations of life (or at least lower them), you'll face less frustration. Basic, obvious, but somehow lacking in many, many people. The final bit on Nietzche ties in to this somewhat, where he tells us we should be prepared for suffering. The two are somewhat complementary, if rather different in application.

The book has been attacked as some sort of "philosophy for dummies" diminution of great thinkers, which is not at all what de Botton is doing. For example, he's not saying that everything Socrates had to say can be boiled down to a consolation for unpopularity, what's he's doing is showing how we can find consolation for a great many problems in the works of great thinkers. The book is meant to provide examples, to entice one into further examination, but not as a substitute. As if there were any doubt, at the back of the book de Botton cites the sources for all his quotes, and suggests further reading, a section more than one critic seems to have missed. Rather, he should be commended for his brevity and clarity in writing about philosophy, and bringing it toward the mainstream. I should say that nothing in book particularly forced me to reexamine my own views toward life or inspired me to change, but I can say I'm better for having read it.

After reading How Proust Can Change Your Life, also by author Botton, I searched out his other works. This book is an attempt to highlight the works of six famous philosophers and to apply their writings to everyday experiences. Socrates and Epicurus represents the works of the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. I especially found the information on Epicurus to be useful in life. The word Epicurean has come to symbolize lavish living but actually Epicurus writes that wants can be pared down to necessities, such as friendship, and that everyone can "afford" to be happy. The most interesting chapters to me dealt with philosophers Montaigne and Nietzsche. Montaigne was one of the first to write of the total human experience, not just the "pretty" parts. My favorite observation in the entire book comes when Montaigne must pay homage to his best friend, who has just died suddenly. "He alone had the privilege of my true portrait." It is difficult to find another human being who you can truly be yourself with, warts and all. The chapter on Nietzsche deals with preparing for the difficulties of life and how by only experiencing discomfort or suffering can we truly achieve our dreams. If one constantly avoids pain, the greatest achievements available to humans cannot be obtained.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in philosophy, especially a beginner. It spurred me to read Montaigne's essays. Complete with illustrations and pictures which serve to illuminate the text, this is a wonderful book.

Having read Alain de Botton's highly amusing Proust book, I expected no less from CONSOLATIONS OF PHILOSOPHY; and I was not disappointed. Five philosophers (Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche) and one giant of literature (Montaigne) are enlisted to help us deal with such universal problems as popularity, sexual rejection, poverty, and inadequacy.

Curiously, none of these philosophers (with the possible exception of Epicurus) led happy lives. Seneca was ordered by his pupil Nero to commit suicide; Montaigne was tortured to the point of distraction by kidney stones; and Nietzsche went mad. De Botton, however, shows how each one exhibited great common sense on at least one area in their lives.

The upshot of all this advice is to consider that others have it worse, buck up, and forge ahead despite all the obstacles. Not quite what Buddha discovered beneath the Bodhi Tree, but in this era of chicken soup for whatever ails you, it's a step up. Unlike most self-help books, this one instead of bloating two paragraphs into a 100,000-word book, leaves you hungry for more. Particularly useful are the notes in back, directing the reader to the sources and presumably further enlightenment.

I was a little put out that de Botton left out all mention of Boethius, whose CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY was one of the most influential books of the last 1,500 years and is still a very worthy book for accomplishing the same goals. As a skeptic, I was also disappointed that Lucian of Samosata was omitted. Oh, well, you can't criticise a book for what it was not. De Botton's selection is highly individual and, what is more, it works.

a friend gave this book to me as a gift. i must admit that it wasn't quite what i expected - which was a blow-by-blow account of various sexual positions. first of all, this book has no drawings whatsoever! and i didn't expect to find that there were chapters dealing with seduction, mistresses, love potions, etc...i still found it a good book to read inspite of my initial 'disappointment'. it does live up to its (ill?) repute as a manual of sexual instruction, and it's translator, going by the short info given on him, appears to know whereof he speaks, what with his credentials as a Hindu scholar. leave your biases behind and pick up the book, you'll be glad you did. i wouldn't recommend trying the exotic love potions though! as for sex preferably not being learned from a book, i have this to say...of course no book on sexual instruction should be your bible to love-making, but we read up on chess, cooking, the news, and a whole range of other topics, so why not sex? a great many of us are a lot more ignorant than we think we are, and it's not always feasible to ask around, especially since i personally will not divulge any tricks i might have learned from my lover's bed, out of respect for our privacy.

I bought this book a few years ago and is one of the most intriguing books I have read. It gives an unique perspective at the life of ancient India (c 100-500AD) on how the people lived and the society flourished. What strikes most is when ancient India was talking about souls and spirits, on how life is vain etc, here is a book that says "being materialistic is not bad". If the society didnt consider that such a book isnt a blasphemy how great it should have been. And the book survived! Apart from the usual sexual poses, Kamasutra, is a history book. It also lists the 64 ancient arts of India, which I was trying to find for more than a decade and I never quiet expected to find in this book. Also the lives of courtesans are an interesting read.

Alan Danileou's translation is straightforward and it also includes commentaries on KS by other authors which helps to know different views. Though it lacks pictures (precisely the reason I bought it - not to get distracted from the original composition) it is a much better translation than Richard Burton's (which also I own). At times Richard gets squeaky in explaining very "intimate" things (its not a complete translation, looks like he left things that are too un-Victorian to translate) but Alan is more straightforward and complete.

Also translated are the chemistry of love potions, how to make money (of course not relevant to modern times) etc. If it contained the original Sanskrit quotations, I would have enjoyed the poetic flow. Anyways it adorns my book case.

It helped alot. Very clear and distinct. I never heard of this book until /i read the book "he never called again", then i bought this one.

Some of this book is brillant. De Botton thoughts on memory and how we view relationships can be amazing. He also can be funny. I was impressed with many of his ideas. On the other hand, by page 150 or so, I found the constant analysis of biographic form to be grating. I can see why Isabel felt as she did at time (although she is no great woman by any means). Again (as in On Love, a far superior book), we have a nameless narrator and no details on his life. Oh well. It is amusing at times, but not worth the time invested. Alas, I shall fall silent now.

After finishing Alain de Botton's biography/novel KISS AND TELL, I found myself hoping on behalf of its putative subject Isabel Jane Rogers that this work is more fiction than fact. Or at least that "Isabel" is a composite of every young woman the author ever dated and not a real individual person. Although de Botton catalogs many of "Isabel's" quirky habits (her poor sense of geography, the way she picks her nose and chews on the callouses on her fingers, etc.), he exhibits enough of his own dubious traits (for instance, he admits letting her plants die unwatered while devouring half a box of her chocolates while house-sitting for her one time) to give us a sense that in some unprovable way, he is at least playing fair.

But under this delicious patina of pettiness, there are a number of more serious subjects. Such as the nature of biography itself. And whether our versions of ourselves are any more reliable than those of an outside observer. The nature of memory. And a comparison of the virtues and liabilities of the fat, detail-obsessed Boswelian biographies versus the "toast-sized", summary-style biographical sketches of an Aubrey. (Anyone who has read--or tried to write--an obituary for a family member will find the chapter "In Search of an Ending" fascinating.) And anyone who is familiar with de Botton's other works will not be surprised how he manages to draw the likes of Marcel Proust, Adam Smith, Frederick Nietzsche, Tolstoy, and Hippocrates into the conversation, as well as zany bits of pop psychology like graphology, palmistry, and magazine personality questionnaires. To support the trope that KISS AND TELL is a real biography, de Botton even provides a 12-page, fully functioning index (complete with entries on "toenails" and "sex.") As a work of fiction, KISS AND TELL isn't nearly as interesting as his earlier novel, ON LOVE, but it is an amusing book...and it will make you think about your own quirks and self-delusions.

Outstanding fictional examination of how we perceive each other as humans as well as the art and form of biography. The narrator, derided as being self-absorbed, decides to write a biography of the next person he meets. Thus, we are treated to his attempt to do this with "Isabel", a young London woman he meets at a party. De Botton spins it all with a very light, often comic, touch, and yet manages to raise some fairly deep issues relating to how our perceptions of others are formed and shape our actions. Very good stuff which makes me want to find his other work and read it immediately. Fans of "High Fidelity" will likely find this a slightly higher-brow, but very enjoyable book. See also "On Love" and "The Romantic Movement."

Her third project of standards is also her strongest and most appealing. Focusing on songs from the classic "film noir" era of movies, Carly knows just when to make a song her own statement and when to play it straight. The dramatic "You Won't Forget Me" is given a traditional arrangement, but she takes Cole Porter's chestnut "Every Time We Say Goodbye," almost always performed as a ballad, and turns it into a 50's reminiscent, horn-laden gem with an insistent midtempo beat. "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year," a duet with Jimmy Webb, is given a jolt to its piano and vocal arrangement with a surprising electric guitar solo. "Last Night When We Were Young" offers a perfect dose of sweet nostalgia, and Carly ingeniously weaves elements of her moody ballad "Haunting" (from her 1978 album "Boys in the Trees") into the intro for the ultimate mood piece, Johnny Mercer's "Laura." The project even inspired Carly to write her own classic song, the brilliant title track that gives new meaning to the escapism of the movies. In the wake of so many pop trends and gimmicks, it's refreshing to not only hear someone remember these classic songs, but to breath new and inventive artistic life into them as well.

We saw the Carly "Film Noir" special, and thought what a wonderful concept and collection of songs. The more we played "Film Noir" the more we couldn't stop playing it. Every time I'd call home there was Carly singing "You Won't Forget Me", "Every Time We Say Goodbye" and "Last When We Were Young" in the background. "Lili Marlene" and her duet with Jimmy Webb "Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year" are my two clear favorites. Two poignanct songs that hit the mark squarely. Carly was great to listen to in the 70's, and is equally delightful and fresh in the 90"s. The only other collection of "classics" that compares to "Film Noir" is Melissa Manchester's "Tribute". Two wonderful collections worth owning and giving to others.

Play this CD,and your World changes to Black and White.It takes you back to the post war days. When I get a CD,I love to read the linner notes,and see who wrote the Music and Words,also the musicians.I couldn't beleive Frank Sinatra co-wrote "I'm a fool to want you." This song is fantastic. I have alot more respect for old blue eyes for writing such a wonderfull song.But my favorite,"Lili Marlene." You will see Marlena Dietrich in your room singing this song to the troops.The American's and the German's both cherished this record while the War was going on. "Don't smoke in Bed" I wouldn't want to mess with this Women. They way Carly sings this,you'll never be able to fall asleep again."Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" I hear this song everytime I step into a Mall. What a great tune. This should have been a top ten hit. John Travolta sounds nice in the "Two Sleepy People" duet,.but Jimmy Webb is wonderfull in the "Spring will be a little Late This year" You won't be dissapointed buying this CD. Thank you again Carly.

I have NEVER, in my entie life read a critique by a "respected" or "respectable" scholar that was as shallow and simply rediculous in its approach to another philosopher!

For someone who had such a "close" relationship with Deleuze, to do such a narrow-minded a job in writing about him is simply mind-boggling. Every other sentence uttered out of his mans lips reduced the complexity and care with which Deleuze explicated his thought to unidimensional, reductionistic "truths" about what Deleuze "really" said or meant. How ridiculous! You'd think that the man would approach Deleuze with the same openness that he expounded for the writing on others.

2 things were immediately clear to me after treading through this mess: 1) that Badiou is completely a political animal, realizing that people might actually pay attention to his banal thought and mediocre intellectual abilities should he play up his relationship to a real thinker; 2) that other mediocre thinkers will believe he has something revolutionary to say if he adopts Zizek's highly effective method of being 'more' revolutionary than the revolutionaries to buy himself some controversy and by masking it all in set-theory so people unfamiliar with mathematics will be blinded by the sophistry.

Badiou has already got what he wanted from this book, Deleuze's audience in the English speaking world. It's always very sad to see people hanging on to the coat-tails of dead men...

Postmodernism. What are we supposed to make of the stuff? It's all written in a stream of consciousness style by obsessive compulsives. And most of their arguments are circular and utterly unconcerned with facts. Well, here's the best start. Badiou explains everything Deleuze wrote on his own simply and coherently, which many of Deleuze's disciples do not. And best of all, he doesn't do it in a superior, combative tone. He even explains why Deleuze's disciples are all so combative and superior. (Something to do with cynicism on Deleuze's part.)

Though I will say, if you're a science studies type and you're rigorous in your thought, you'd best do to steer clear of this book. Because your rigor usually comes from willfull blindess.

Caveat to any scientific types: Badiou is an unabashed vitalist. I don't know what his defense here is. The way they usually defend themselves sounds a lot like that line "If I have a choice between the state and my friend, I hope I have the good sense to choose my friend." That is, he appeals to raw uninterpretable first-person experience over third person points of view. With the fact that the Flynn effect remains unexplained and preformationism has turned out right (all life is, literally, is just the result of folds in DNA), this may not be such a bad thing.

Now for fun, once you've read this book, you can read Derrida's Postcard and see why it's one of the most compulsively amusing books ever written. (The difference between Deleuze and Derrida? Derrida is flat-out hilarious and provides the raw uninterpretable experience that he describes.)

To begin, i should note that prior to reading Badiou's book, much of Deleuze's earlier work had remained mysterious to myself. Thus, i am not in much of a position to offer any real challenge to Badiou's interpretation of "Difference and Repetition" and "The Logic of Sense." Regardless, if nothing else, the interpretation that Badiou gives is clearly presented. Although this sounds trivial, the clarity in this book is appreciated in a genre where clarity if usually disregarded, and unfortunately, often for mere stylistic (and not philosophical) reasons. Thus, because of this "Deleuze: The Clamor of Being," although dealing with difficult topics, can be understood by anybody with some knowledge of Deleuze, even if this knowledge is not extensive.

The clarity of the presentation, however, almost seems too obvious. That is, the way in which Badiou describes Deleuze's "philosophy of the One," and the quotes that he extracts to demonstrate this claim, make this thesis to be obvious to anybody who has read Deleuze. However, clearly this is not the case, as Badiou himself recognizes that this book should shock those who take pride in Deleuze's "schizophrenic" aspect. Thus, merely taking Badiou's interpretation of Deleuze, and the fact that so many thinkers have overlooked what he presents as information that should be clear to any reader, this gives me the uneasy feeling that he, and not these other thinkers, has missed something fundamental in Deleuze's thought. This, of course, necessitates a re-reading of Deleuze's own work, something that "Deleuze: The Clamor of Being" necessitates, i believe, for anybody who overlooked the first time around what Badiou reveals as self-evident to any acute reader.

As a previous reviewer pointed out, Badiou gives little interest to Deleuze's work with Guattari. However, although there definitely is a schizophrenic aspect to this work (especially in "A Thousand Plateaus"), it seems as if the fundamental concept of the Body Without Organs corresponds in most, if not all, ways to the concept of the virtual/ the One. Badiou does occasionally use ideas expressed in Deleuze's work with Guattari, especially "What is Philosophy" concerning the status of philosophy, however, he fails to cite these sources.

Additionally, it seems to me as if the interpretation that Badiou gives to Deleuze's work indicates more of a pantheistic vision that one that indicates transcendence. Of course, there is a bit of irony to write that Deleuze has "transposed transcendence beneath the simulacra of the world, in some sort of symmetrical relation to the 'beyond' of classical transcendence," but regardless of the irony, the very idea of Being as univocal and as One chimes much more with eastern worldviews than western Platonic and Christian ideas of transcendence. This especially seems to be the case when we consider Deleuze's work with Guattari in which all strata (that is, all different properties of the world that surrounds us) are merely "coagulations, slowing-downs on the Body without Organs."

Finally, even if Deleuze's ontology indicates "heirarchical thought," this doesn't mean that Deleuze's task, therefore, is to "submit thought to a renewed concept of the One." In fact, it seems to me as if there is a crucial distinction in his work with Guattari between "methodological" claims and ontological claims. Rather than encouraging us to employ reductionist schemas in our analyses of any given system, the very title "a thousand plateas" indicates that we need to take into account as many different aspects at work as possible-- biological, economical, polotical, geological, etc. (this distinction between a methodology of multiple aspects of reality and an ontological expressing only One fundamental reality is continued in Manual Delanda's appropriation of Deleuze and Guattari's thought in "A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History.")

Despite these further considerations that would have been made necessicary had Badiou taken into account Deleuze's work with Guattari, "Deleuze: The Clamor of Being" provides a tremendously useful, and strikingly clear, interpretation of Deleuze's independent work to the point that it necessitates a re-reading of this work.

Alain de Botton has done what many may believe to be impossible-- he has found a lucrative use for philosophy. Okay, maybe he isn't the first one, but he certainly has done a good job of it. His style of prose is addictive-- de Botton is witty and light while still maintaining a level of profundity and intellect. The book certainly does not read like an academic monologue, but one comes away from it with something of the feeling of having partaken in something intellectual and educational. In addition, the pictures and drawings that pepper the pages will often make you smile. I came to it without previous knowledge of Proust; nevertheless I was able to appreciate it quite a bit. (At times I longed for footnotes so that I could pursue a deeper study of Proust, but it isn't that sort of book). Beginning with "How to love life today" and ending with "How to put books down," de Botton does an excellent job of relating the work of Proust to our everyday lives. De Botton has an instinct for understanding human behavior and enjoys deconstructing it with the tools of philosophy. Read it and enjoy; reflect on the content, and it might well do some good.

First, while I really love this little book, it doesn't quite deliver on the title. Not that the title isn't accurate. Very few fiction writers can actually change one's life, but Proust is one of a very few that can (reading him has very definitely changed mine), but I'm not quite sure that de Botton gets at the reasons why. At least, he didn't get to the specific reasons that Proust has had that effect on my life.

Nonetheless, this remains an amazingly good introduction to Proust, and is a marvelous first-book for anyone contemplating reading Proust's masterpiece. Proust is, of course, the author of what is very widely considered to be the great work of literature of the past century and what is increasingly considered one of the great masterpieces in the history of literature: IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME. de Botton's volume isn't precisely an introduction to Proust so much as a series of reflections on themes that can be illustrated by aspects of Proust's life or by passages in his great novel. Many of these are marvelous at assisting even a veteran reader of Proust to gain new insights into his book.

Is the book worthwhile for someone who does not plan on reading Proust but just wants to read an enjoyable book? Certainly. de Botton is unfailingly witty, almost always interesting, and frequently insightful. None of this relies either upon having read Proust or intending to. The book can certainly stand on its own. Reading this book is fun and easy; reading Proust can be fun at times, but it is also challenging and demanding frequently. But that may be why de Botton's book is unable to show how Proust truly can change your life. Proust has a way of sucking you deep into his book, making you so much a part of it that you feel almost that it is you and not the narrator from whom all these feelings and emotions arise. You almost become a part of the novel, and your life can change because Proust can create a story that becomes a mirror to your own life, instilling a sense of the things we ought to have done but didn't, but providing the revelation that it isn't too late. Proust can also show how all the failures of the past can become the material for future success and accomplishment. de Botton hints at some of this, and even quotes some key passages that in the context of the novel most eloquently display this (cf. the Elstir speech on p. 67, which I believe displays the central theme of the entire novel better than any other passage in Proust).

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone wishing either a fun read or a light-hearted intro to Proust. But even more I recommend reading Proust. Only in doing that can one actually discover how Proust can change one's life.

This is another one of Botton's fine contributions to contemporary writing--a combination work of literary criticism and practical study of Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Having recently completed the first volume of Proust's novel, this book gave me a deeper insight into Proust's handling of such themes in the book as love and friendship. As in his books On Love and The Romantic Movement, Botton shines in his ability to sensitively express various aspects of love and its influence on relationships. He also does a fine job of using various Proustian plots to help the reader understand how to simplify a complicated world. For example, one of my favorite pieces in Botton's book is his comparison of Albertine to the Duchesse de Guermantes and their polar approaches to appreciating art and apparel. This differentiation, in turn, raises an awareness of the joy and fulfillment that can be achieved in being non-acquisitive when it comes to attaining one's desires. For anyone wanting assistance in seeking a more spiritual life, Botton's book is a gem

I am a high school student and I take Cinema and Literature, a college class. I was suppose to read this book, and I did. At the beginning it was going pretty slow...it was too detailed. Then around the middle it started to get good. At the end, it left me empty. I felt like everything I wanted, and was expecting to be answer was not. It is an okay book if you are able to understand what happens at the end, I didn't.

This novel seems much longer than it actually is. The "action" is dragged out and you begin to find Mathias' obsessive plans to sell his watches tedious, but there is something oddly compelling about it that makes you read on. Lingering behind his figure eight strategies is the death of a disreputable girl and this is what keeps you on the edge of your seat, sick with worry and anxiety. Even though we are following Mathias incredibly closely in all his movements we still don't feel we know him. This is largely because we are made to understand that Mathias doesn't know anything about himself. There is a distinction made between "the salesman" and Mathias. It indicates there is an impersonal aspect to him we will never know. He is constantly being made into an impersonal and stereotypical type of person and the reader is forced to search for details that will connect him with a personal experience. His past is portrayed as an impenetrable muddy mess. "it was useless trying to stir up his memories, he didn't even know what he should be looking for." You gather that the world will in a sense always remain unknowable because of our limited personal perspective. In a sense each person's perception causes harm to what they perceive by limiting it by our own values and labels. This is the murderer and the mystery is how to disassemble our own code of perception. This novel is a fascinating exploration of these ideas and a pleasure to read.

repetition, redundancy, monotony, that's the point, open ended, yep. Thought-provoking, hope so. French lit, definitely. Go for it then watch his films.

I am finding the English translations predominantly British and scores of American English words and expressions missing. I thought this was because I bought mine in France but my LaRousse pocket dictionary doesn't have the same problem. I am writing a series of books and use this constantly, hours and hours every day, and so I am further able to see a disturbing trend: the things females talk about, the words and expressions they use tend to be the shortest entries in the book! This is making my research very rough going since half my audience is female! This may be a function of the American vs. British thing; maybe British females aren't as fluent with psychology, for example, as American women... but I doubt it. Talking about emotions and relationships is a pretty globally female trend, yet many of the words describing these things are labelled "Psych", as though they are used only by professionals when in fact in the US they are part of the vernacular. This is forcing me to cross-reference three or four times to be sure I'm using the correct form of the word.

My next complaint is that the meanings are sometimes inaccurate. For example: the second connotation of the word "appreciation" is "gratefulness" and the onlyFrench word they supply is "reconnaissance." The sense "like, admire" is not addressed at all. There are many examples like this and I am not really sure to what it can be attributed but I can't imagine it would be a good resource for college students if it doesn't work for a writer.

This is my experience and I would love to hear an American provide some tips because I bought 2 versions of this brand!

"Harper Collins Robert French College Dictionary" has a rather long name, but that is the only big blame I have for it. It quickly opens the door at the request of any French enthusiast.
This well-compiled lexicon covers almost all the contemporary words that French natives use in daily conversations. It has a good structure, and its double-spaced outlay makes it easy to locate words. However, intending (American) buyers should bear in mind that this edition paid more attention to the Queen's English than it did to the American one.

Robert is a competitor of Larousse, who edits a very academic dictionary.

The Robert French dictionary is not allowed in Catholic schools, and there is a good reason for this: all the words that make the French language are in there, including the slang words that are so capital in this language (you usually meet at least one slang word per sentence in spoken French) and, of course, the dirty ones, so that you know them and can avoid using them ;)

Collins did the same job in Britain and, of course, these two people had to meet one day and decide to give their own two centimes and pennies on how to improve the Entente Cordiale, linguistically, of course.

If you had to buy only one French dictionary, make it monolingual or bilingual, I would recommend the Robert, or the Robert & Collins dictionary.

Alain De Botton's latest publication, ~The Art of Travel~ is a philosophical investigation, simply written, on the reasons and motivations for why we travel. The book's main thesis is that our lives are dominated by a search for that illusive and fleeting emotion or state known as happiness. Travel, he proposes, is a major activity, amongst many, where we seek-out this state of mind. Travel can possibly show us what life is about outside our routine-filled day-to-day existence. The book examines our motives for travelling, our anticipations, and expectations using the writings of various artists, poets and explorers, providing different and highly creative perspectives on the subject.

Personally, I found the most rewarding and instructive chapter to be, 'On eye-opening Art', using the views and paintings of Vincent van Gogh. Just as instructive, however, is the chapter, 'On Possessing Beauty', drawing on the works of the 19th century critic and writer, John Ruskin. The message from both these individuals are quite similar. One of the tasks of art, specifically painting, is to provide us, the viewer, with new perspectives in which to view the world. Vincent van Gogh's exceedingly original style and use of colour, for example, transformed, for some of us, the way we see a sunflower, a wheat field and a Cypress tree. When viewing these works of art, or any work of art, we are inspired to travel to these places where the artist created, and experience the subject of the works first-hand.

John Ruskin believed that one of our primary needs in life is beauty and its possession. He suggested that the only meaningful way to possess beauty was through understanding it: '...making ourselves conscious of the factors (psychological and visual) that are responsible for it,' (P.220) The way to attain this understanding, he suggests, is to draw and write (word paint) those things and places we come across in our travels that strike us as beautiful. A person sitting down in front of an expansive landscape, and sketching its many features, will discover aspects about the scene that would be invisible to the casual observer. When travelling, take the time to draw and write about those places and things one sees, and the experience will be much richer as a result.

~The Art of Travel~ is a helpful philosophical guide to the budding and seasoned traveller. Where other books on the subject instruct us on where to go and what to see, Alain De Botton tells us how to approach our journeys and some useful tools on achieving a much more meaningful and rewarding experience.

De Botton's book is another that I came across at the library in which I work. I was so enamored of it that I had to own it (3 cheers for Amazon!) The book is a series of essays ("On Anticipation", "On the Exotic", "On Possessing Beauty", etc.) interspersed with black&white reproductions of paintings and photographs.

Each essay/chapter contains a place/places and a "guide/guides." For example, in #2 ("On Travelling Places"), the "guides" are French poet Charles Baudelaire and American painter Edward Hopper. Using quotes from the former and paintings from the latter, de Botton evokes the romance of airports and train stations and other places of arrival & departure--how they are the stuff of hopes, dreams, inspirations.

He also writes of the joy of the journey itself, where one is transported not only away from the physical familiarity of home, but into a state of suspension, where--for a time--the worries & complaints of everyday living don't exist. I have experienced this sensation as well as the joys of anonymity--an experience which can transform even a cheap motel room into a sanctuary from daily demands.

Hightly recommended.

Alain de Botton's book furthers his exploration of philosophical issues in our every day lives. Travelling for the author becomes a way to discuss our pursuit of happiness as well as they way our expectations affect how we live. While the questions that he raises are sophisticated and he draws on his background as an exquisitely trained philosopher for this book, the narrative is incredibly readable:his anecdotes are witty, the prose flows well, and seemingly a high school freshman could comprehend and digest much of what he is saying.

By no means however does this mean that it is not a challenging and enlightening read. de Botton relates a series of his journeys from comical moments of deciding to travel thousands of miles across the globe from the inspiration of a picture of palm trees to the anxiety we experience when we discover that not only does our destination have palm trees but also dirty streets, traffic, and bureacracy. His personal experiences are sprinkled with insight from other famous travellers from european colonial painters to influential french novelists. The end result is a witty, personal, and thorough exploration of travel and what it tells us about the way we live our lives.

As a side note seeing Alain de Botton read and discuss his work in Oxford displayed his depth of knowledge and comfort in his field. He is truly a philosopher who cares about communicating and discussing ideas about how we can better live our lives in an intelligent and coherent manner for any willing reader which is an admirable task. Do not pass this book up!