Philosophy · Similar reads
Books like The Architecture of Happiness
The best books like The Architecture of Happiness are The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Status Anxiety, and The Art of Travel. The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton is about architecture, aesthetics, identity. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- The Death and Life of Great American Cities
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The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Jane Jacobs · Economics
The Death and Life of Great American Cities is Jane Jacobs's 1961 argument against the dominant urban planning orthodoxy of her era, and one of the most influential works of urban theory ever written.
A kindred philosophy read.
Read the summary → - Status Anxiety
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Alain de Botton · Philosophy
Status Anxiety is Alain de Botton's 2004 examination of why modern people are so consumed with their standing in others' eyes, and what philosophy, art, and history can offer as remedies.
Both dig into identity.
Read the summary → - The Art of Travel
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Alain de Botton · Philosophy
The Art of Travel is Alain de Botton's philosophical meditation on why we travel, what we hope to find, and the gap between anticipation and experience.
Shares aesthetics and beauty with The Architecture of Happiness.
Read the summary → - Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees
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Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees
Lawrence Weschler · Biography
Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees is Lawrence Weschler's extended portrait of Robert Irwin, the California artist who began his career as an abstract expressionist painter and progressively dismantled every element of conventional art-making — frame, canvas, pigment, discrete object — until he was working with pure perception itself.
A kindred philosophy read.
Read the summary → - Art as Experience
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John Dewey · Philosophy
Art as Experience, published in 1934, is John Dewey's attempt to rescue aesthetics from the museum pedestal and return it to ordinary life.
Both dig into aesthetics.
Read the summary → - Experiencing Architecture
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Steen Eiler Rasmussen · Philosophy
Experiencing Architecture is the Danish architect and town planner Steen Eiler Rasmussen's attempt to teach non-architects how to see and feel buildings.
Both dig into architecture.
Read the summary → - Letters and Papers from Prison
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Letters and Papers from Prison
Dietrich Bonhoeffer · Philosophy
Letters and Papers from Prison is a posthumous collection of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's correspondence written during his imprisonment at Tegel military prison in Berlin between April 1943 and October 1944, along with some earlier papers and the poem "Who Am I?" written near the end.
Both dig into identity.
Read the summary → - Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives
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Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives
David Eagleman · Philosophy
Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives is a collection of forty short, fictional vignettes, each imagining a different version of what happens after death.
Both dig into identity.
Read the summary → - The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
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The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
Alan Watts · Philosophy
The Book, published in 1966, is Alan Watts's most direct attempt to explain the central illusion he spent his career examining: the belief that each of us is a separate self, enclosed in skin, confronting an alien world.
Both dig into identity.
Read the summary → - The Mind's I
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Douglas Hofstadter & Daniel Dennett · Philosophy
The Mind's I is a collaborative anthology edited by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett, two of the most influential thinkers on consciousness and mind of the late twentieth century.
Both dig into identity.
Read the summary → - The Symposium
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Plato · Philosophy
The Symposium is Plato's dialogue on the nature of love, presented as a series of speeches delivered at a dinner party in Athens around 416 BCE.
Both dig into beauty.
Read the summary → - The Timeless Way of Building
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Christopher Alexander · Philosophy
Christopher Alexander's The Timeless Way of Building is a strange and ambitious book.
Both dig into architecture.
Read the summary →
Books like The Architecture of Happiness: quick answers
What are the best books like The Architecture of Happiness?
The best books like The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton are The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton, Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler, Art as Experience by John Dewey, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Architecture of Happiness, such as architecture, aesthetics, identity.
What should I read after The Architecture of Happiness?
A natural next read after The Architecture of Happiness is The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. A kindred philosophy read. Other strong choices are Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton, Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler.
What books are similar to The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton?
The Architecture of Happiness centers on architecture, aesthetics, identity. Books with a similar feel include The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton, Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler, Art as Experience by John Dewey, Experiencing Architecture by Steen Eiler Rasmussen — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
