How to Live -or- A Life of Montaigne (Sarah Bakewell, 2010)

Wasn't sure how to approach this book - it had great reviews, and Montaigne is Montaigne; but the insipid self-help industry (of which this book smacks) typically is annoying, at best.  


After reading through (pretty quickly):  I would say this book comes down somewhere in the middle, but unfortunately more on the self-help side.  I don't recommend it; to the extent the book was interesting, it was mostly due to putting some context around Montaigne's life and times.  And that did have some value.

There are 20 chapters responding to the titular question ("How to live?") - with gems such as "Do a good job, but not too good a job;" "Reflect on everything; regret nothing;" "Be ordinary and imperfect;" etc.  You get the idea.

This is standard stuff for the self-help industry, which - like the weight loss industry - appears to be completely worthless, yet recession-proof.  Only a really wealthy society could actually blow $$ on this stuff.

So skip this book and just the read the Essays themselves, as folks have been doing for centuries.