The News
A User's Manual
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Narrated by:
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Nicholas Bell
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By:
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Alain de Botton
About this listen
The news is everywhere. We can’t stop constantly checking it on our computer screens, but what is this doing to our minds? We are never really taught how to make sense of the torrent of news we face every day, writes Alain de Botton (author of the best-selling The Architecture of Happiness), but this has a huge impact on our sense of what matters and of how we should lead our lives. In his dazzling new book, de Botton takes 25 archetypal news stories - including an airplane crash, a murder, a celebrity interview and a political scandal - and submits them to unusually intense analysis with a view to helping us navigate our news-soaked age.
©2014 Alain de Botton (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Current times demand you get this into your head.
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Thought provoking and Uplifting.... A++++++++!!!!!
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From Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Charlie Chaplin, this varied and unfailingly absorbing book is both story and history, both public memoir and personal record - and provides an essential field-guide to the vast movements of taste, intellect, politics and delusion that helped to prepare the times we live in now.
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Very enjoyable and well narrated
- By Larbi on 05-18-08
By: Clive James
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Weapons of Mass Instruction
- A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling
- By: John Taylor Gatto
- Narrated by: Michael Puttonen
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of traditional education which cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a byproduct of rote-memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down, introduced the now-famous expression of the title into the common vernacular. Weapons of Mass Instruction adds another chilling metaphor to the brief against conventional schooling.
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I will never see school the same
- By Nicole on 05-21-15
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The Republic of Imagination
- America in Three Books
- By: Azar Nafisi
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favorite novels, she describes the unexpected journey that led her to become an American citizen after first dreaming of America as a young girl in Tehran and coming to know the country through its fiction. She urges us to rediscover the America of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and challenges us to be truer to the words and spirit of the Founding Fathers, who understood that their democratic experiment would never thrive or survive unless they could foster a democratic imagination.
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Love
- By Rebecca on 05-29-16
By: Azar Nafisi
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At the Existentialist Café
- Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
- By: Sarah Bakewell
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist, you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"
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Consistent look at incoherent philosophy
- By Gary on 06-19-16
By: Sarah Bakewell
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Existentialism and Excess
- The Life and Times of Jean-Paul Sartre
- By: Gary Cox
- Narrated by: Matt Addis
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Jean-Paul Sartre is one of the undisputed giants of 20th-century philosophy. His intellectual writings popularizing existentialism, combined with his creative and artistic flair, have made him a legend of French thought. His tumultuous personal life - so inextricably bound up with his philosophical thinking - is a fascinating tale of love and lust, drug abuse, high-profile fallings-out and political and cultural rebellion.
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a capitalista biography of Sartre
- By Anonymous User on 01-24-20
By: Gary Cox
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Religion for Atheists
- A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The boring debate between fundamentalist believers and non-believers is finally moved on by Alain de Botton's inspiring new book, which boldly argues that the supernatural claims of religion are of course entirely false - and yet that religions still have important things to teach the secular world.
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Disappointing, Erroneous, Implausible
- By Douglas C. Bates on 11-02-12
By: Alain de Botton
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The Almost Nearly Perfect People
- Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia
- By: Michael Booth
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Journalist Michael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians for more than 10 years, and he has grown increasingly frustrated with the rose-tinted view of this part of the world offered up by the Western media. In this timely audiobook, he leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success, and, most intriguing of all, what they think of one another.
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Obsessed with bad politics
- By Erik on 09-07-20
By: Michael Booth
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Shadows of a Princess
- By: Patrick Jephson
- Narrated by: Patrick Jephson
- Length: 19 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Reissued for the 20th anniversary of Diana's death, this sensational best seller is an explosive account of her life, from the man who was by her side throughout its most turbulent period. In 1981 Lady Diana Spencer was seen by many as a lifeline for the outdated Windsor line. But Diana didn't follow the script. Instead she brought a revolution. Patrick Jephson was Diana's closest aide and adviser during her years of greatest public fame and deepest personal crisis.
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Honest and balanced Diana account
- By Karla Huntsman on 06-09-18
By: Patrick Jephson
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How Democracy Ends
- By: David Runciman
- Narrated by: David Runciman
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the end of World War II, democracy's sweep across the globe seemed inexorable. Yet today, it seems radically imperiled, even in some of the world's most stable democracies. How bad could things get? In How Democracy Ends, David Runciman argues that we are trapped in outdated 20th-century ideas of democratic failure. By fixating on coups and violence, we are focusing on the wrong threats. Our societies are too affluent, too elderly, and too networked to fall apart as they did in the past. We need new ways of thinking the unthinkable....
By: David Runciman
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What listeners say about The News
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Bett Bollhoefer
- 05-16-15
Quit the news
This stoical view of the news is refreshing to be as I quit the news one year ago. The author gives a philosophical argument of why the news falls short whenever it could actually help us. He not only gives specifics as to each type of news' failings he also gives us what the news could be to answer our deep needs as a society and individuals.
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1 person found this helpful
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- James
- 08-06-18
Great Advice
Highly recommended for anyone who grapples with how to consume the news. Very relevant in today's political landscape.
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- Ahmad Al-Shagra
- 02-21-23
An informative and contemplative journey
This book helps become aware of how we consume and produce information that reflects the world around us. The author’s unmistakable eloquence guides through contemplation and appreciation of how complex our perception is of the world.
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- Laura Hartness
- 05-01-14
The News and a Treatise on Life
What did you love best about The News?
De Botton presents truths and insights not only about the news which greatly affects our modern culture, but he examines aspects of society as a whole that I found enjoyable and thought-provoking.
What other book might you compare The News to and why?
I don't know that I've ever read a book quite like "The News", to be honest.
What about Nicholas Bell’s performance did you like?
He has a lovely English accent that is pleasant, but not distracting from the content. The attention is drawn to De Botton's words, not Bell's performance of them.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
At times it did make me laugh out loud, recognizing the amusing truth behind many of De Botton's thoughts. But more often than not, it had me pondering issues of life in ways I never have before. I found myself jotting down notes on numerous occasions.
Any additional comments?
This copy of "The News" was provided for review purposes only.
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1 person found this helpful
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- laura
- 01-03-17
These were new and worthy ideas.
I enjoyed this book primarily because of the introduction of what I found to be new ideas. I also found Bell's narration soothing, mainly due I believe due to the fact that he has a steady meter in his reading and a calm tone to his voice. I will certainly be listening to this time and time again. I will also be purchasing more of De Bottoms audio books.
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- Ben Andrew Duffy
- 09-08-20
Very thought provoking
Classic de Botton, full of great advice and interesting references to art and literature. Could have enjoyed a few more chapters
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- Ray
- 02-21-14
Not newsworthy
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
There are some interesting concepts, but they are poorly integrated into the text. I was hoping for much more.
Would you ever listen to anything by Alain de Botton again?
No
Would you be willing to try another one of Nicholas Bell’s performances?
No
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The News?
The book isn't laid out in scenes.
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- R. Smith
- 02-10-20
Misleading title.
Mostly about how the author thinks news should be presented. Does not give any valuable insights for a reader and watcher of news.
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