Is Alain de Botton talking about you?

If you are reading this blog you almost certainly have some interest in books. I'm inclined to believe that your interest--in books in general, not (necessarily) in this blog--indicates something positive about your character.

The writer Alain de Botton is slightly more skeptical about all that. For example:

There's a classic category of melancholic adolescents who are overly drawn to literature: they become journalists, academics, publishers, and it's a melancholic slice of society.

....

My greatest hope for my son is that I bring him up so that he doesn't feel the need for poetry, for philosophy, that I felt as an adolescent - that he's more at home in the world without the mediation of books.

For other observations that fall under the heading of "This much I know" by Alain de Botton, click here.

Last week I ran an item on a list of books mentioned by the writer; click here to read it.

--Marshal Zeringue