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.