Wow - you poor thing! That is really bad luck, although I guess you could use this opportunity to be grateful it wasn't something deadly - after you've finished ranting and being incensed about it like I know I would be! I love Alain de Bottom. The first book of his I read was How Proust Can Change Your life. I've read at least 3 or 4 others and I really appreciate his style as you were saying. If nothing else, at least you had the right book for your trials and tribulations today. Better luck next time!
Oh yes! He is amazing and is a bright thinker and writer, not everyone has both skills! Oh - his talks are great too! Very accessible yet insightful. I'd like to think he would see the irony that a bird decided to shit on his book on that exact page :') Maybe I'll send him an e-mail about it.
your story was practically made for one of his books! or one of yours...