How to live life

Author's Name: Sarah Bakewell

"No knowledge is more difficult to acquire than knowing how to live life naturally, well, and joyfully." How do you blend easily into a group of people? How do you deal with violence? How do you cope with the loss of a loved one? Such questions are present in the lives of most of us, and they are all multiple translations of one big question: How do we live? Montaigne wrote free reflections on his thoughts and experiences as no one else had before. More than four hundred years later, people are still drawn to his writings by his charm and honesty. Readers seek him out for companionship, wisdom, and entertainment, but also to connect with themselves, and that is what we will find in this inspiring biography. It is a book about loss, not worrying about death, and about love, for "love is great because it is a mystery difficult to understand. If your heart beats with an emotion that defies description... enter." On companionship: "I was born for companionship and friendship." On affection: "Affection, a small word but of infinite intensity... contributes more to improving people's lives than pity, charity, and self-sacrifice." On the joy of knowledge: "If I encounter difficulty in reading, I do not bite my nails, but rather put what I read aside. I do nothing without joy." It is a book present in every time and place, as has always been said about it for centuries. Today, as we live in the madness of herds driven by their fanaticism, we see it present as well: "How much courage and determination is required to preserve oneself in a time dominated by the madness of the herd