Not to be confused with Boethius's 'Consolation of Philosophy', this book comes with pictures, and lots of them, as it is geared for the digital aged consumer and attending attention span.

But wait. this is no cute little tome begging us to read about white, anglo-saxon nothern european philosophers who truly didn't discover life until they vacationed in the southern climes, this is a nugget of genuine Wisdom!

Eschewing the normal branches of philosophy such as epistemology, ontology, metaphysics and so on (I forget the others), Mr. de Botton corrals his philosophers around such modern topics as 'Unpopularity', 'Not Having Enough Money' and 'Happiness', all day to day pragmatic subjects we all can feel comfortable delving into, as opposed to Occham's razor, which just doesn't sound right to begin with, now does it?

de Botton not only loves the philosophy, but the philosopher as well and in this wonderful book provides slice of life sketches of Socrates, Aristotle, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and finally and ironically perhaps the most endearing and engendering, Nietzsche.

Montaigne is the centerpiece of this work and rightfully so. His philosophy of life and urbane language written from the foothills of France, is a good capstone for the entire book, which comes early, leaving the rest to Schopenhauer (and his beloved poodles) and Nietzsche.

The questions of life, there is no end for the sensitive, and this book brooks many of the themes we all deal with on a day to day, minute to minute basis.

From the late greeks Socrates, Aristotle and Epicurus, we learn to think for ourselves in a right-minded fashion. From the late Roman Seneca we learn to withstand the blows of fickle Fortune. Montaigne breaks with tradition (no later than the 1560s, mind you,) in refusing to admire Plato and Aristotle simply because his fellow schoolmen did, and instead chooses a living, breathing philosophy that is couched in terms of the vernacular. Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, our two Romantics, provide us with a healthy dose of pessimism, while if one reads between the dark black lines, he can find Hope pouring in at the oddest moments and places.

what a wonderful survey of western philosophy this is, and the pictures are pretty nice as well!

Just got back from Pennyrile Forest State Park, where we spent three days in the lodge. The acreage of deciduous forest is accentuated by a resplendent lake and dam system. 'Pennyrile' is a bastardization of 'Pennyroyal', an herb common to the area. Before we went, we saw my son play the bass drum for the North High Huskies. That is him, second to right in profile. Anyway, back to Pennyrile, while there I listened to my mp3 player a lot. There is this new band I found called 'The National' I dug bunches Other bands included Blonde Redhead, Lisa Gerrard, Dead Can Dance, David Bowie, Interpol, the Rapture, New Order, Electronic, Klaus Schultze, and a slew of others.