After How Proust Can Change Your Life, philosopher Alain de Botton's books got a little too precious for me [out of the frying pan, into the fire, I suppose]. But I'll still check in to see what he's up to. Turns out he's got a kid now, 2 years old. And all this time, I thought Proust was what you read when you couldn't get a date.

There are a few kid-related bits in his NY Times Magazine house tour today, which is tied to the US launch of his new book, The Architecture of Happiness:

Obsolete item he won’t part with: There is a hideous plastic caterpillar toy that my son, Samuel, used to be very hot on but has lost interest in now that he’s 2. It probably should be thrown out, but we will save it as a memento.

...

Tech item he can’t live without: A small vacuum cleaner my wife bought. I was very skeptical of it. I saw it as a kind of bourgeois item that might be purchased by people whose lives have gone wrong and have decided to compensate by overinvesting in gadgets. But with a child, you do appreciate the ability to suck something up without having to get out the big vacuum.