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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Really seeing when we observe,
By Alison "girlrunning" (Derbyshire, UK) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Art of Travel (Kindle Edition)
The Art of Travel is a mixture of de Botton's own personal musing and those of other philosophers and travellers. The most interesting and enjoyable parts for me were those of de Botton's own thoughts and analysis. He points out the obvious but in ways that you've never considered before. In fact it is this lack of seeing that he also comments on when discussing how we can be travellers in our own homes and communities by just looking at what is around us. His observations are apposite and adroit and when it is de Botton's own perception it tends to be illustrated with his wry humour. I particularly liked an early observation in the book were he discusses our need for perfection when we travel on holiday: "A momentous but until then overlooked fact was making its first appearance: that I had inadvertently brought myself with me to the island". He then goes on to lament about his body and mind being a "temperamental" accomplice to the appreciation of what he sees around him. Amusing and so true.
Unfortunately I read this book on Kindle and it was very poorly formatted. The majority of pictures were missing and those that were included were of very poor quality. I can imagine that the reading experience would have been significantly enhanced if the photographs and illustrations had been included. I've read other work by de Botton that contained photographs, and they completed the whole experience of reading that book. The Kindle edition also has several typographical errors so I would not recommend reading this book in electronic format. I have reported the issues, but customer services are not interested and just tell me that transferring a book to e-format can mean missing images. They ignored my comments about typos! Avoid this book on Kindle.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
How to see,
By
This review is from: Art of Travel (Paperback)
In this small book de Botton explores many aspects of travel - why do we do it? what do we get out of it? He explores our expectations, our motives (the search for the exotic, curiosity), and what we are likely to realise from the endeavour.
He explores the way different perspectives from different places and different people (especially artists) can freshen our view of the 'mundane', imbuing it with an exoticness we may have lost the sense to perceive. Lewis Carroll put it this way: `We lose half the pleasure we might have in Life, by not really attending'. Key people in the book include Huysmans, Hopper, Flaubert, von Humboldt, Wordsworth, van Gogh, Ruskin, Xavier de Maistre and, of course, de Botton!! other recommendations: 'Against Nature' - JK Huysmans 'Dark Star Safari' - Paul Theroux 'Afoot in England' - WH Hudson 'Travels in South America' - Charles Waterton 'Sylvie and Bruno' - Lewis Carroll
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