The Art of Travel Review
Allain de Botton does a masterful job of exploring travel through the lens of philosophy. What he does best in all his works is express the feelings, emotions and thoughts that go unexpressed by the average person, although they are real and have an impact. For example, in this work de Botton discusses the tendency to disappoinment and dashing of expectations once one arrives at their travel destination, and the unfortunate reality, sometimes, of the traveller being the same person with the same mind set who took off for travel. Our destination will not cure the ills that are ingrained within each of us; we cannot leave ourselves behind. Indeed, our travels may serve to bring our faults out at the most inconvenient time and we may find ourselves disappointed that we took off to begin with. These are the nuances and insights that de Botton explores and exposes in his typical literary manner, bringing to bear in this work the voices of literary and artistic personages like Van Gogh, Flaubert and Ruskin in a highly recommended work that makes the reader reflect deeply on the art of travel. Every time I read one of de Botton's books I find myself pausing and thinking more often and in more depth not only about the specific subject matter of each book - travel, work, status - but on many other topics as well. For this reason alone, his books are well worth reading.
The Art of Travel Overview
Aside from love, few actvities seem to promise us as much happiness as going traveling: taking off for somewhere else, somewhere far from home, a place with more interesting weather, customs, and landscapes. But although we are inundated with advice on where to travel, few people seem to talk about why we should go and how we can become more fulfilled by doing so. In The Art of Travel, Alain de Botton, author of How Proust Can Change Your Life, explores what the point of travel might be and modestly suggets how we can learn to be a little happier in our travels.
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Customer Reviews
Travel As It Should Be - Kathryn Murdock - el granada, CA USA
This purchase is actually for a gift. I had bought it previously and loved it. This book makes it clear that travel is not about seeing the most you can in the fewest days. Travel is an art and a thoughtful one. If you go to just one place it might be able to show you the past,present and future of many places. this is a perfect book to read on the airplane or better yet on board a ship while you are going - anywhere.
Absolutely Astounding - V. Ribeiro - NYC
Wonderful book! Really opened your eyes to aspects of travel often overlooked on planning, during, anticipating, and after trips. If your looking to see what the world has to offer, De Botton marvelously captures the essence of this passion for travel.
Enjoyable and nice but the reader could do with much less references of all these artists, writers etc - 30231WorldTraveler -
The whole idea of including references and descriptions of artists, writers etc and other information about their lives is really interesting. It connects very well with the last pages or lines of each chapter and helps you digest more easily and with examples the philosophical points of the author. However, i think it is too much. And while they are indeed very interesting, they should be part of another book. I bought this book expecting more personal and "philosophical" points on travelling, but i remember myself getting slightly bored at some instances while reading about on the personal life of e.g. Wordsworth. The title is very catchy, but in the end you are left with a mift feeling as i would expect more on the actual travelling. So, in general a nice and enjoyable book which i liked and which book has some insights on aspects of travelling you don't find easily in other books, but the too many extracts on other peoples life and experiences tires you.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 05, 2010 06:19:05
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