This French nobleman retired to his book-lined tower in his late 30s and spent the next 20 years in self-scrutiny, gradually revealing more about himself than anyone had ever done before. You could hardly go wrong by picking Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), the subject of these two excellent books.
What one person in history would you choose to best represent humanity? On the one hand, Socrates and Jesus are a bit too saintly (or more than saintly) to be wholly representative on the other, Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan are, as the saying goes, all too human. Suppose that Earth was invited to join the Intergalactic Congress of Planets, and its chair-being, Zinglos-Atheling, wanted to know more about our strange species.
“HOW TO LIVE, Or, A Life of Montaigne In One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer,” by Sarah Bakewell (Other. “WHEN I AM PLAYING WITH MY CAT, HOW DO I KNOW THAT SHE IS NOT PLAYING WITH ME? Montaigne and Being in Touch with Life,” by Saul Frampton (Pantheon.
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