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THE NEWS:  A USER’S MANUAL

Alain de Botton (Pantheon, 2014) ISBN: 978-0307379122 The News

The News:  A User’s Manual is pop philosopher and celebrated egghead Alain de Botton’s latest contribution to dinner party conversation*.  It is a meditative, considered musing on why western societies in particular are so obsessed with “the news” and keeping up with it.  As a news junkie myself, passing through an airport bookshop, I was curious to see what de Botton might have concluded about it all.  I have not previously read any of his books, though I did once catch an episode of the documentary series The Architecture of Happiness, so that counts, right?

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