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Every book Alain de Botton recommended on podcasts
Across 3 podcasts. Every show Alain de Botton appears on, in one place — not just one.
Alain de Botton’s most recommended books
- Art of the Novel by Milan Kundera
- Blood on the tracks by Bob Dylan
- Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
- Face Value, Phil Collins (cassette). by Phil* Collins
- In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
- Maxims by François duc de La Rochefoucauld
- Middlemarch by George Eliot
- Suicide by Émile Durkheim
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Alain de Botton is a British author and public speaker. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published Essays in Love (1993), which went on to sell two million copies. Other bestsellers include How Proust Can Change Your Life (1997), Status Anxiety (2004), and The Architecture of Happiness (2006). Appearing on the podcast How I Write, de Botton spoke with David Perell about his writing process, literary influences, and his own published works. He discussed his debut book, noting its release in the United States as On Love and internationally as Essays in Love, explaining that it was an attempt to understand the painful and complex sensations surrounding romance. De Botton also briefly mentioned his book The Course of Love to illustrate how his writings tend to stray from conventional narrative forms. Beyond his own bibliography, de Botton expressed deep admiration for François duc de La Rochefoucauld's Maxims, praising the seventeenth-century collection of roughly two hundred fragments for its aphoristic style. He cited Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and The Art of the Novel as immensely significant texts that demonstrated structural freedom and deeply influenced his development as a writer. Finally, de Botton brought up Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time to discuss how the French novelist successfully mixed essay and fiction while treating human suffering as a catalyst for insight.
Books recommended by Alain de Botton
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Essays in Love
Discussed“So I wrote my first book which in the United States was called on love and in the uh many other parts of the world was called essays in love and that was an attempt to understand sensations around love”
Where to get it
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Art of the Novel
Discussed“So um the Czech writer Milan Kundara was extremely important for me um the book of laughter and forgetting uh and the unbearable lightness of being and also his book the art of the novel immensely significant texts that seemed to have an incredible freedom.”
Where to get it
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Blood on the tracks
Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan is an acclaimed studio album widely recognized as a masterpiece of emotionally raw songwriting born from the pain of a marital breakup.
Discussed“Think of you know I don't know uh Bob Dylan Blood on the tracks that's a breakup album.”
Where to get it
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Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera is a philosophical novel structured as a kaleidoscope of interconnected stories and essays examining memory, political oppression, history, and human folly.
Discussed“So um the Czech writer Milan Kundara was extremely important for me um the book of laughter and forgetting uh and the unbearable lightness of being and also his book the art of the novel immensely significant texts that seemed to have an incredible freedom.”
Where to get it
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Face Value, Phil Collins (cassette).
Discussed“Think of Phil Collins Face Value breakup albums. Great bits of music that emerging out of pop music”
Where to get it
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In Search of Lost Time
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust is a monumental, multi-volume modernist novel that explores memory, time, art, and the profound meaning of human existence through an immersive blend of narrative and philosophical essay.
Discussed“P has this P by the way who I love Marcusel Puce the great French novelist wrote this really weird book called In Search of Lost Time which is again a mixture of essay novel and I don't know disquisition on the meaning of life.”
Where to get it
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Maxims
Discussed“I remember this 17th century character, French character, Laros Fuku. Do you know him? No. Luko who wrote this book called the maxims in the 17th century and this a beautiful book it must be it's about 200 fragments.”
Where to get it
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Middlemarch
Middlemarch by George Eliot is a classic Victorian novel that explores provincial life, social reform, morality, and human relationships in a fictional English town.
Discussed“um you there's a wonderful quote in Middle March George Elliot big fat 19th century novel where she says if we could properly register the sound of the sounds the full sounds of life um we would lose our minds from the full richness of existence”
Where to get it
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On love
On Love by Alain de Botton is a philosophical novel that explores the psychological mechanics, romantic ideals, and painful sensations of falling and being in love.
Discussed“So I wrote my first book which in the United States was called on love and in the uh many other parts of the world was called essays in love and that was an attempt to understand sensations around love”
Where to get it
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Suicide
Suicide by Émile Durkheim is a foundational sociological study originally published in 1897 that examines how societal structures, integration, and a state of normlessness influence self-destructive behavior.
Discussed“He realizes in his book on suicide, published in 1900, that modern societies, for all their advantages, leads their members of a share of their members, often the most ambitious of their members, to take their own lives.”
Where to get it
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The Architecture of Happiness
Discussed“And um it enraged me and I wrote a book called the architecture of happiness which was an attempt to think about buildings.”
Where to get it
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The course of love
Discussed“So, my books tend to be quite odd. I mean, I wrote a book called The Course of Love.”
Where to get it
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The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera is a philosophical novel that explores love, fate, and the heavy burdens of human existence against the backdrop of the Prague Spring.
Discussed“So um the Czech writer Milan Kundara was extremely important for me um the book of laughter and forgetting uh and the unbearable lightness of being and also his book the art of the novel immensely significant texts that seemed to have an incredible freedom.”
Where to get it
