I love Alain de Boton’s books, especially his ones on Proust, Philosophy, and Travel and here’s a cogent statement of what his literary goals are in an excerpt from an interview.
Cool, I love these new genres. Essayellas!!


Writerspace: How would you like us to remember Alain de Botton and what message or advice would you like us to retain?
Alain: I’d like to be remembered as someone who had a shot at trying out a kind of essayistic writing, which blended the personal and the philosophical, in search of practical answers for how to deal with the problems of everyday life.

Those who sow in tears
will reap with songs of joy.
⁶ He who goes out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with him. Psalm 126.

It’s odd how much satisfaction one can derive from simple things. My clothes were all higgledy-piggledy in my dresser, and I took them out, folded them neatly to find more space, and gritted my teeth and got rid of things which were faded, or looked lovely when I was thinner. But not now.

What satisfaction in getting rid of things! It’s probably a symptom of Affluenza that getting rid of things is as satisfying as acquiring them.

It’s Monday morning now, and I have a day clear to write. I could run and then write, but I think I will take a dreamy 45 minutes to continue my work of tidying the bedroom, and sorting out another dresser.

I have three dressers and 1 built in cupboard full of clothes. Far too many, but it takes time to cull them. I have decided never to have more clothes than fit in these 3 dressers and 1 built in cupboard. Am trying to discipline myself to donate or chuck an item each time I buy another sweater, T-shirt or pair of trousers.

It’s nice having fewer clothes and liking everything you have.

What are the best known pieces of writing of all time?

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, [a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
David

1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Job

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah

All written by people without higher degrees, who had not studied literature, rhetoric or writing.

Sublime literature can be produced by those in touch with the creative spirit of God, those who allow that Spirit to flow through them.

Being in touch with the Spirit of God. You do not see that as a prerequisite to get into a posh Creative writing programme.

But in fact, if one could but learn that communion, one would succeed in creating literature that would bless the world as the spirit of God seeks to love and bless the world through us.

I am a a fan of Flylady, the Domestic Organization goddess, who suggests that one should not get caught up in guilt about recycling until one gets one’s act together–domestically.

And so I did not. I was an extremely sporadic recyler.

Then my county, South Oxfordshire, decided it did not want to be fined for over-use of landfill.

So it limited us to ONE wheelie bin of rubbish a fortnight, and one wheelie bit of recycling a fortnight.

What’s up with us? We can never manage to fit all our trash in that bin. Today, we took a trip to the tip with extra accumulated rubbish that the magpies were shredding open.

We even find it hard not to overfill our recyling.

But South Oxfordshire has certainly stumbled upon a very effective way of changing people’s behaviour. Limit the waste you clear, fine people who generate more than that (which somehow we do, I don’t understand how!) and provide bright new easy recycling bins.

I am actually happy to recycle now that it has become so easy for me. We just leave the bins in our driveway, and the county’s trash people collect it from there.