The pleasures of not having to do a day’s work in your life

Alain De Botton’s new book is out. The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work is a another philosophical self-help treatise, or so it’s been described in the Metro this morning (I am reading the free Metro on the bus). I have not read the book.

It’s kind of a bad time, I guess, for someone who does not need to work, at a time when many are being put out of work, to write about the pleasures of a 9-5 grind in the office.

I am sure I read a columnist in the Times or Mail on Tuesday who also had a go at DB because DB has never had to work – the claim made was that DB inherited 200 million from his father. The Metro, on the other hand, says that while his father was eye-wateringly rich, DB’s “money is his own”. Hmmm, confusing messages. Especially for me, as I really want to revel in being pissed off and envious, and the latter report rather stands in my way.

Anyway at least I can gloat over some reviews:

Naomi Wolf wanted to hurl it across the room.
The merciless Daily Mail review here.

PSOTSCRIPT Sat 4th April:

To be fair (and to qualify my admittedly rather petty comments above), I have since found these reviews which are much kinder:
Telegraph.

Todays’ Guardian.

I should of course read Alain’s book before commenting myself, so will do and put up a review later. I have also promised a short review of Singer’s latest book.