The Art of Travel

I read this book while on vacation in Bora Bora a couple months ago - Bora Bora doesn't seem like the kind of place where you would need any more inspiration in order to enjoy the experience. But after reading The Art of Travel, the enjoyment I got out of the rest of my trip increased 10 fold. And the messages from this book still haunt my mind months later. I've always considered myself to be an avid traveler, but up until now I've just been going through the motions - like I've had some massive "to do" list that needed to be completed or something like that. I now look at every trip I take in a very different light, but it's not just that...I even think about my daily commute differently. This is a mind-opening book and is a great read not only for those who are seeking more depth from their far flung adventures, but also those who just seek to find more meaning in day to day life. There are very few books I read more than once, but this one will remain on my nightstand (and in my backpack when I'm on the road) for a long time to come.

Useful techniques to get more out of travel. Worthwhile in that regard, but sometimes this book was a chore to get through.

Happy with purchase. Thoughtful, provoking and entertaining.

Although very well written, The Art of Travel only partly deals with travel. Alain de Botton excels at times with descriptions of places he has seen but too often reverts to the lives of people like Humboldt and Van Gogh. Such people are very interesting but steer away from the subject of the book. Worth a read -- I particularly liked the end piece where he talks about Travel around the bedroom - but the title is misleading.

De Botton's book is another that I came across at the library in which I work. I was so enamored of it that I had to own it (3 cheers for Amazon!) The book is a series of essays ("On Anticipation", "On the Exotic", "On Possessing Beauty", etc.) interspersed with black&white reproductions of paintings and photographs.Each essay/chapter contains a place/places and a "guide/guides." For example, in #2 ("On Travelling Places"), the "guides" are French poet Charles Baudelaire and American painter Edward Hopper. Using quotes from the former and paintings from the latter, de Botton evokes the romance of airports and train stations and other places of arrival & departure--how they are the stuff of hopes, dreams, inspirations.He also writes of the joy of the journey itself, where one is transported not only away from the physical familiarity of home, but into a state of suspension, where--for a time--the worries & complaints of everyday living don't exist. I have experienced this sensation as well as the joys of anonymity--an experience which can transform even a cheap motel room into a sanctuary from daily demands.Hightly recommended.

Alan deBotton begins this book with the observation thattravel is often disappointing. What we see when we travelis often what we could see anywhere. Worse yet, we bringour neurotic selves along wherever we go. The observation isnot new (Montaigne's essay On Solitude comes to mind as aforebearer), but it is certainly apt.Is there a curefor travelers' boredom? More importantly, is travel ofany real value?In a series of chapters, the author suggests that there is.* Seize the chance that trains and planes offer to detachthe mind from the ordinary and to simply think.* Follow the example of Flaubert and recreate your identity.Are you secretly Polynesian? Parisian? Pelopennesian? Go for it.* Feed your curiosity before you go. Recognize that genuinecuriosities are seldom organized geographically.* Allow landscape to move you, thrill you and humble you.* Let the power of art influence how you see. Going to Provence?Study Van Gogh before you go.* Learn to sketch, however badly, as a way of turning yourmind to what's in front of you* Shake off the habits of perception that dull you toexperience-try seening your everyday world as if forthe first time.Does this approach work? It has for me. Every goodtrip-that is, every one that's had immediate and long-termpleasant effect has been grounded in at least one of thoseprinciples.Of course, you may suspect that deBottton is putting uson. There is a sense that he may be doing parody, takingon the self-help genre out of a wicked sense of fun. Thebook is padded out with ninety pages of blank sheets andsome equally blank illustrations. There are times when itseems that the author is rambling in his descriptions forthe sake of the word count and a few truly awful constructionsmade it past the editor-`mutinous North Sea waves'. Is `foregrounded' a verb?No matter, whatever the author's intentions, the resultis worthwhile: an alert that calls us to a realistic programfor reviving the joy of travel.--Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE andthe forthcoming novel bang BANG from Kunati Books.

Philosophy x Travel x Art. I own around 500+ books, this is by far one of the best reads I have ever read.

Eloquently written, easy to read, interesting and balanced discussion, funny at points, wide ranging ideas - what more could you want?

What a beautiful book. Alain has made me more observant than ever. How often have we been guilty of travelling the different places and yet felt the same way we felt at home. I got the answer to my question of why I like travelling solo better then with other people and also why I want to travel in the first place. I loved the way the book has described different reasons to travel and how to get the most out of it or you can just stay where you are and still manage to have the experience of novelty in mundane life. In short, you change the way you look at things and you are a traveller staying in the same place.

Another one that I read for myself and now recommend, lend or buy for others

The Art of Travel book came exactly as described in as-new condition, all the way from America in a week or so, amazing. Happy with the purchase of this book. Looks great on the bookshelf.