Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
It’s a book about Dyer’s mind, which I think is both interesting and funny… He is constantly flitting with ideas about all sorts of stuff – not big ideas, but things such as how easy it is to lose your hotel room key and why grass is green (literally). There is lots of stuff in it, hung together by the force of his personality. You would have a hard time describing it to a publisher.
Your final selection, Geoff Dyer’s Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It, is actually part-travel book, is that correct?
It is a series of essays on the places he’s visited. It’s not one journey but a scattering of essays.
I understand that he is not one of those bright-eyed, 20-something travellers, and that a sense of ennui is prevalent throughout the book. Would you agree?
He is a counter-cultural hippy figure and that comes across in his book – there’s a chapter on taking dope in Amsterdam. He is also horny and has a lot of sex. He is not an older gentleman just travelling around – he is a hipster, a dude.
Why would you recommend this book in particular, when there are so many travel books around?
I guess because it’s not a travel book in that sense. It’s a book about his mind, which I think is both interesting and funny. And he is charming as a writer. He is constantly flitting with ideas about all sorts of stuff – not big ideas, but things such as how easy it is to lose your hotel room key and why grass is green (literally). There is lots of stuff in it, hung together by the force of his personality. You would have a hard time describing it to a publisher. In this age where books are supposed to be about one thing, whether it’s Henry VIII or the Crimean War, it’s a very nice change.
Does he take a dim view of yoga?
The title is supposed to be in praise of slacker-dom and not doing very much. It’s not about yoga at all.
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Alain de Botton is an internationally renowned author and presenter. His essayistic books on love, architecture, travel and work have become bestsellers in 30 countries, and several have been adapted for television. Alain also started and helps run an educational establishment in London called The School of Life, and in 2009 he became a founding member of Living Architecture.
