The Art of Travel

Rating:
Summary: A must-read for the traveller
Review: In his chapter called "On Eye-opening Art", Alain de Botton describes his lukewarm initial reaction to the much-extolled Provence, France. Then, in a sleepless first night there, he happened to read chapters in a book about Vincent Van Gogh that focussed on Van Gogh's Arles period. Van Gogh's art opened de Botton's eyes to the beauty of the landscape, because he started to see it as that great artist had. I mention this detail in particular because what Van Gough did for de Botton, de Botton does for the reader. "The Art of Travel" introduces the reader to an attitude toward and practice of travel that allows him or her to enjoy it more fully. de Botton's suggestions and observations are surprising, of the "Huh, I never thought about that" variety.
de Botton is well read, and he draws upon his knowledge of artists, philosophers, naturalists and poets, combined with first-person narrative, to illuminate his points. If you take the author's suggestions to heart, wherever you go -- across the globe or in your own neighborhood -- you will immerse yourself in your wanderings to a greater and more satisfying degree.
Having said that, I should add that this book is not just a means to an end. The journey itself is enjoyable. de Botton's writing is as engaging as his philosophy is attractive.

Rating:
Summary: More Consolations...
Review: In his continuing (and admirable) quest to bring the philosophic to bear on concrete everyday topics, de Botton's latest slim work takes on the notion of why people travel, and how this is linked to the pursuit of happiness. It's very similar to his last work, The Consolations of Philosophy, in that his aim seems to be to help the reader avoid being disappointed in their travels-as so often is the case. And is the case in his other work, the answer is to be found within ourselves if only we would take a few moments of self-reflection, as he puts it: The pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to."

To illustrate this, he intertwines his own travel experiences with those of several famous European writers and artists in order to highlight his points. Although the book is divided into five distinct sections (Departure, Motives, Landscape, Art, Return), these each have various subsections and sub-subsections, making the structure is more haphazard than his previous nonfiction. Some of these sections work better than others, a particularly weak one is the examination of Flaubert in Egypt and exoticism. He takes Flaubert's self-professed kinship with the "unwashed masses" of Egypt at face value, failing to acknowledge any of the inherent power dynamics in this, or indeed any Western tourist's visit to the third world. Rather he is content to point out the self-evident fact that the lure of the exotic has always been a powerful motivator for travel.

In any event, it's hardly surprising that he uses artists and writers to piggyback his themes on, for (as is evident from the title), he equates travel with art in that one of the functions of each is to provide one with a new window on the world, a new way of seeing. His suggestion is that once we recognize this, and stop trying to use travel as an escape from our dull lives, we'll be much happier. He locates one of the major sources of our disappointment in travel in our ability to image the beach or mountain but our inability to imagine ourselves in that landscape.

Even with its flaws, the book is a useful tool for rethinking our own motivations for travel and potentially useful guide to helping us enjoy it more.

Rating:
Summary: A must for blasé travellers
Review: In the past, when I still regularly attended graduation parties, such parties were always teeming with graduates-to-be harbouring fanciful travel plans. Everybody seemed intent on getting away a.s.a.p., as long as possible, and to a very far away and preferably out of the way place. They wanted to become travellers, a breed not to be confused with commonplace tourists. I've never been able to detect any intrinsic motivations driving this graduate travelling habit, e.g. a deep-seated and longstanding interest in a particular country or culture. It was simply a matter of opportunity, this jumping at the a chance to be thoroughly irresponsible for a while, before entering on the responsibilities of a steady job. And of course, everybody was going and it would be very un-cool to stay at home. After these people returned from their well-organised adventures, it invariably struck me how little they had changed, and how little they had to tell about the places they had been; apart maybe from random scraps on local customs that I could as easily and more completely have found in any travel guide book. Nevertheless most of these people, even years later, would be prone to lapse into dreamy states of blissful reminiscence at the slightest cue, expressing a deep longing to go back there, preferably to stay. It got me wondering why it is that the same things we find boring or commonplace at home are suddenly deeply interesting simply because they occur 5,000 miles away.
I remember one such party where I met an acquaintance who just got her degree in philosophy. I asked her if she was planning on her more or less mandatory world trip as well. But she just gave me a weary smile, tapped the side of her head and said: 'Travelling is something you do in here'.
In a nutshell that's the question and the essence of the answer in Alain de Botton's thoughtful book on travel. Why do we bother? What do we expect, and why are we so often disappointed? And then again, why do our memories of the trip rarely reflect the disappointments? And what is the clue to not being disappointed? How do you go about really experiencing the place where you are and making it part of yourself? On all such questions De Botton has interesting and often entertaining observations to make. He shows us that the exotic is not defined by long-haul flights and palm trees, but can be found literally on your doorstep if you just know how to look. He explains why a travelling Englishman can be depressed on far away and exotic Barbados and euphoric in nearby, but in many ways equally exotic Amsterdam, or even around the corner in Hammersmith where he lives. As a Dutchman I was fascinated by his detailed analysis of a sign in the arrivals hall of Amsterdam Airport, explaining its exotic nature from a British viewpoint, and the reasons you would never ever find a sign like that in the UK, just across the Channel. De Botton is a master at finding such surprising angles to elucidate his subjects. Moreover he has considerable erudition to add, resulting in an engrossing mixture of philosophical insight, personal experience, and references to artists, writers, explorers and scientists of the past. Mostly these historical figures, Flaubert in Egypt, say, or Humboldt in South America or Van Gogh in the Provence, are exemplary 'artists of travel', people who knew how to make the most of their expeditions. By taking their mindset, involving energy, patience and an eye for detail, as a template, De Botton generates some useful suggestions for the modern day traveller who no longer wants to bore himself by 'scoring' obligatory highlights in the guidebook star-rating order, or who refuses to be a slave to his camera any longer. He may even give you some clues as to how to deal with that greatest travelling problem of them all, the fact that wherever you go, you always have to take yourself along.
In all, an elegant, intelligent, thought-provoking, amusing and useful little book, that nobody who takes travelling seriously should miss. Don't take it with you though - it won't last you much longer than an afternoon on the beach...

Rating:
Summary: An author's philosophical approach to travel.
Review: In today's travel literature market it is not often that we have an opportunity to read a book that is devoid of telling us where and how to go, but rather the philosophical aspects of travel.

Alain de Botton's collection of charming reflections entitled THE ART OF TRAVEL opens up a window to a variety of hidden thoughts that we often ponder but seem to ignore.
How often is the anticipation of a voyage more gratifying than its actual fulfillment, when we can muse, as does the author, when he states, "there were times when I felt there might be no finer journeys than those provoked in the imagination by staying home slowly turning the Bible-paper pages of the British Airways Worldwide Timetable."

In our age of persuasive marketing, glossy photos of far off idyllic places often seduce us to travel to destinations that unfortunately do not seem to resemble our preconceptions. De Botton's poetic essays explore various ingredients of the travel experience, such as, airports, holiday romance, uncomfortable hotels and distasteful scenery. These induce us to question why we travel and what benefits we derive from the adventure. Particularly in today's travel climate with the threat of terrorism, travelling does not seem to have the same sparkle as it once enjoyed. There certainly is no fun attached to standing in line at an airport for three hours waiting to be questioned, searched and eventually admitted to a stale smelling airplane containing seats that are so narrow that even a child would have difficulty in finding comfort. However, even with all of its shortcomings, De Botton reminds us that travel is a learning experience and by effectively employing our senses we will be handsomely rewarded. We are reminded that we travel not only to lose ourselves but also to discover ourselves. To observe and to appreciate surroundings that ordinarily may not be meaningful.

De Botton accomplishes this feat by skilfully blending his own images with the aesthetic endeavours and travel experiences of some of the most renowned authors and painters such as, William Wordsworth, Gustave Flaubert, Edward Hopper, Vincent van Gough, John Ruskin, Charles Baudelaire, and Alexander von Humboldt.

It is the teachings of these individuals that show us how to appreciate nature, to fall in love again, and to recognize the beauty and poetry of such simple scenes as a motel, service station, or an airport. As the author philosophizes, "it is perhaps because, in spite of their architectural compromises and discomforts, in spite of their garish colours and harsh lighting, we implicitly feel that these isolated places offer us a material setting for an alternative to the selfish ease, the habits and confinement of the ordinary, rooted world."

Many of the truisms expounded upon in THE ART OF TRAVEL are far from novel, however, it is the manner in which they are expressed that I found enlightening. Very often I found myself rereading passages and uttering "right on," as they reaffirmed many of my own perceptions of travel.

An interview with the author appeared on the reviewer's own site

Rating:
Summary: Unbearably BAD
Review: Never have I been more proud of America's independence from Britain than after struggling to read the horridly bad ramblings of this dry, boring book written in the most pompous British style. This book goes against every principle of a good book that I believe in, most notably, GET TO THE POINT! Here are a couple of examples:

"I was where I lay, but I, that is the conscious part of myself, had in truth abandoned the physical envelope in which it dwelt in order to worry about the future, or more specifically whether lunches would be included in the price of the room."

"If fidelity to a place had seemed possible from home it was perhaps because I had never tried to stare at a picture of Barbados for any length of time. Had I laid on the table and forced myself to look at it for twenty-five minutes, my mind and body would have naturally migrated toward a range of extrinsic concerns and I might thereby gained a more accurate sense of how little the place I stood had the power to influence what traveled through my mind."

UUGGGHHH!!! Some people should stay in the University "institution" where they belong!

You are not going to be "enlightened" by reading this book, learn anything about traveling, nor be inspired to do anything except pondering the choice between burning the book or donating it to the goats at your local museum.

Rating:
Summary: The Art of Travel
Review: This book was a tiring read. I struggled to get through it. Only one chapter was remotely interesting and thought provoking. The rest was self serving drivel. If you need a book to put you to sleep on a plane or train, this could be it.

Rating:
Summary: The Poetry of Airports and Travels Through the Self
Review: This is a truly wonderful book which will help thoughtful travlers unravel the many inexplicable sensations form excitemnt to boredom and nostalgia that accompany them on their journeys.The title hints that the book also discusses how artists, from painters to poets, have used travel to explore their own passions reflecting them through their workform the exotic tatstes of Gustave Flaubert to the quiet loneliness of the paintings of Edward Hopper. In this sense the book could well be described as an art history text; however, it speaks in a personal and warm tone that engages readers and stimualting them to thinsk about the genuine meaning of travel, well beyond the cliché expressions, we so often use to boast about places we've seen to friends and family. The book makes you think about why we travel and what is it that we learn about ourselves in the process. On a more personal basis, I finally found in de Botton an author that shares my love of airports. They have become those places where so much of the best qualities of humanity become evident. People exchanging genuine affection, love and friendship as joyously embrace a firend,, lover or reltaive at the arrivals floor or more poignantly - and perhaps more poetically - as they say goodbye, sometimes for a brief period, sometimes permanently, at the departures gate. The tears on both sides of the customs gate, speak for the hundreds and thousands of miles that will separate them. I could not recommend this bokk more, as it provokes you to think with your brain and perhaps even more with your soul.

Rating:
Summary: we are our own refuge
Review: this is an entertaining adventure where mr de botton does a lot of physical travelling and shares some of his literary travelling with us.
his conclusions are of a buddhist nature . our states of mind control how we react to a given landscape , whether its the sinai desert or our own bedroom .
i think mr de botton would find basic buddhist instruction very helpful . he seems genuinely baffled that he is not able to enjoy as he had expected, the natural beauty of his experience in the Bahamas for instance, because of a minor altercation with his partner . do not seek happiness elsewhere for it does not exist , if u are not at peace with yourself.
an annoying dictum perhaps, but no less true.
i would be interested to hear from other readers who may or may not agree with me.