The reviewers can’t seem to say enough good things about How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell. If there are any negative reviews I haven’t seen them.

The Amazon.com crowd will usually let you know if they don’t like something and there are nearly always few negatives even if most folks like it. But when I looked this afternoon there were 22 reviews and 16 were the highest rating (5 stars). The rest were 4 stars. Have a look there. Read some reviews if so inclined and maybe even buy the book.

The Library Journal puts in among the Ten Best Books of 2010. The book has gotten rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. (It was released in England before the U.S.) There is a wonderful portrait of the author and the book in the New York Times. But enough about everyone else; what do I think?

Montaigne believed the best way to discover how to live was in the examination of everyday things and events and writing about them in his Essays. In doing so he seems to have invented a new literary form. And you might consider some bloggers as his literary descendants. Speaking of blogs and such, I am grateful that the author chose to talk about the Oxford Muse self-portraits. I was unaware of this and it looks like some very interesting reading.

This is an unusual biography. But then Montaigne was an unusual man. He did think of himself as usual, or maybe as unusual as everyone else, but what made him really unusual was that he wrote about life and himself. And he had a knack for shifting his perspective, imagining events through the eyes of someone else or even his cat. (Yes, that was a shameless attempt to lure cat lovers to my blog.)

Sarah Bakewell has constructed a most unusual biography of this proto-blogger and accidental philosopher. It is structured around 20 answers (or as she puts in attempts at an answer) to the How to Live question. Bits about his life are scattered in among the answers and this a very seems suitable way to tell the story of his life. We slowly to know him as we listen to some of his answers and learn about his life.

The book is an enjoyable read. I felt I was learning much about Montaigne, his life, his philosophy, and the 16th century world he lived in while enjoying a good story or series of stories. The book reads like a novel perhaps because she make the subject so compelling but I think the book is so complete it would also be useful as an academic resource.

Here are a few more links if you want to read a bit more:

• Other Press (US Publisher) on this book
• Sarah Bakewell’s pages
• The Teacher’s View
• My first impressions
• UK Telegraph Review
• UK Guardian Review

Also I might mention that I rarely am impressed with the design on the dust jacket but the design on the US version by John Gall is very good (in my opinion, of course).

Enough about this book and my opinions. I’m off to read some Montaigne essays which I hear are about you (and me!)