Over at Time, Lev Grossman throws in on the whole Alain de Botton versus Caleb Crain and Alice Hoffman versus everyone who does not love her unconditionally controversies. Unsurprisingly for Grossman and for Time magazine, the piece is maddeningly equanimous, but it's still worth a read:

I write fewer pans than I used to. Readers actually egg you on to do it — you always get a bunch of fan mail after you seriously whale on someone — but unless the writer is sufficiently established that he or she can take the hit, with hit points to spare, it just feels mean. (I have a certain amount of luxury in this regard, since I'm a staff reviewer and can pick and choose a bit. Freelance reviewers who get assigned things don't have it that easy.) Reviews have a much longer and more public life-span now than they used to, because of Google.

But more interestingly, Grossman links to a blogger who made reference to Alain de Botton's wealthy background and suggested that he didn't want to read his new book. de Botton exchanged e-mails with the blogger soon after, demanding that he take down the post:

Your latest blog makes my blood boil....I don't know what you think you're doing writing such blogs other than adding to the not already inconsiderable sum of human misery. If you've got any honesty or sincerity, you'll take the post down immediately and if you've got a trace of courage, you'll reply to this email and confront me as one person.

Also, de Botton invokes the names of Tolstoy (in reference to himself) and Goebbels (in reference to his critic). How much do you want to bet that his next book is going to be about how much people suck on the internet? Wait, that's already been done. Better luck next time on catching the outrage train, de Botton; it's left the station without you.