Om konsten att resa

I hadn't read philosophy for ages so am happy to have been able to borrow a trio of Alain De Botton books for a friend. The first, Status Anxiety, was interesting, but didn't speak directly about my lifestyle. This second book, The Art Of Travel, is absolutely on the money! De Botton explores attitudes to travel through the eyes of a number of historical thinkers and writers including Wordsworth, Van Gogh, Huysmans and, finally someone whose work I have actually read, Xavier De Maistre. All De Botton's thinkers are men and, I believe, all white men at that, so we don't get a rounded view of travel over the past few centuries, but I enjoyed dipping into the ideas that they espouse. This is a great book to discuss as well as to read so could make an ideal nonfiction book club choice.

De Botton starts by thinking about how the anticipation of travel can be more rewarding than the reality. Huysmans fictional creation, Des Esseintes, feels more 'in' a country by visiting its ex-pat enclaves than in the original land. De Botton also looks at how our ideas of desirable places to visit are shaped by the impressions of artists and writers who preceded us. Arles is now most famous for its Van Gogh connections (although Dave and I were more taken with the Roman history!), and it wasn't until painters started interpreting the Scottish Highlands or Wordsworth strode across the Lake District that these wild places became fashionable - and, consequently, a lot less wild!

De Botton writes in an easily accessible style so Reading Philosophy wasn't at all arduous! I could identify with many of the ideas discussed and now also have a lengthy further reading list that includes the third of my De Botton trio, The Consolations Of Philosophy.