Living in More Than One World the Alain de Botton Way

The subject of The Independent’s My secret life feature on May 2 is the London-based author Alain de Botton, whose new book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, has already been published in the UK, and comes out in the USA next month. Rather than a standard Q&A format, My secret life draws out brief answers to such statements as:  “At night I dream of”… “When I was a child I wanted to be”… “My greatest inspirations are”…(One of the replies to the latter is Geoff Dyer, who was featured in this blog on May 2.) A look at de Botton’s site shows him to be an embodiment of living in more than one world. He has written both fiction and nonfiction, and on a variety of subjects, such as architecture, travel, philosophy, literature and love. Perhaps his best known book is How Proust Can Change Your Life.  He’s also involved in documentary production and was the co-founder last year of an intriguing storefront educational/therapy outlet in London, The School of Life.