2014 Blogger Challenge // Three

From here

I have a good friend, S, who always makes excellent recommendations. She said Alain de Botton's book "Essays in Love" was a perspective-changing read. I started reading that one on my iPad but need to get hold of a physical copy of it to really soak it in, I think. I did find "Status Anxiety" in a charity shop, however, and must say de Botton's writing style is quite exquisite. He has this ability to make you see the world through completely altered eyes and blows your mind in the most satisfying of fashions.

On an aside, isn't it a lovely thing when you find a special book in a charity shop? Sure, it's easy to let go of books that you thought were average and didn't love, and even easier to give away books that you despised or which sent you to sleep. But to give away a book that means something to you, that awakens your soul and causes you to think, now that must be an act of love and a desire to share something so excellent you feel compelled for somebody else to have a magical moment discovering it. Either that or an attempt to get rid of clutter. One or the other...

Anyhow, this fortnight's 2014 Blogger Challenge post is about books and I would like to share with you a passage from it which I wrote out last summer in my notebook of special words, when I first read this book. I hope you can connect with it on some level.

"There may be no better way to clear the diary of engagements than to wonder who among our acquaintances would make the trip to the hospital bed.

As conditional love starts to seem less interesting, so too may many of the things we pursue in order to secure it. If wealth, esteem and power buy us the kind of love that will last only so long as our status holds, and yet if we are destined to end our lives defenceless and dishevelled, longing to be comforted like a small child, then we have an unusually clear reason to concentrate our energies on those relationships which will best withstand the erosion of our standing."

- From "Status Anxiety" by Alain de Botton

---------

This post is part of the 2014 Blogger Challenge, hosted here. I aim to post in response to each topic released every fortnight.. I hope you enjoy it. If you're also taking part, please let me know as I would love to see your take on each challenge. You can see my other posts here.

Tweet Pin It Now!