Everyday Systems

With the influence of Emile Zola being referenced in the genesis of Shovelglove perhaps we should look for inspiration from other French novelists. Here might be a good place to start:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/067977 ... oding=UTF8

I once read the first book of (it was Remembrance of Things Past) the In Search of Lost Time series. I almost died.

I love the idea (and the author), but Proust tends not to write about the Buff. I think I remember reading that he himself was so asthmatic and neurotic (and artistically sensitive) that he would get asthma attacks when listening to particularly evocative parts of Pelléas et Mélisande over the telephone (he was way too sick and neurotic to physically make it over to the opera house -- no urban ranger he).

Still, it can't hurt to look, if that's what it'll take to get someone to take a crack at him. He's well worth it, for plenty of other reasons.

Reinhard

I've read that book and it's great, as is de Botton's other pseudo-self-help book "The Consolations of Philosophy." I highly recommend both.