The Course of Love in Around the World in 80 Books

Sep 27, 2016 Ginger rated it really liked it

Shelves: cultural-studies, homemaking-hospitality

This book was utterly interesting and beautiful.

Botton writes some lines that will live with me forever. "Compatibility is an achievement of love; it shouldn't be its precondition." and "Love is a skill, not just an enthusiasm."

This prompted SO many questions and great discussions about marriage. I kept stopping to read hilarious observations to my husband. This would make a wonderful anniversary gift for the right couple, except I'd recommend it to VERY few people. I don't agree with all of his This book was utterly interesting and beautiful.

Botton writes some lines that will live with me forever. "Compatibility is an achievement of love; it shouldn't be its precondition." and "Love is a skill, not just an enthusiasm."

This prompted SO many questions and great discussions about marriage. I kept stopping to read hilarious observations to my husband. This would make a wonderful anniversary gift for the right couple, except I'd recommend it to VERY few people. I don't agree with all of his philosophical conclusions, but that's ok. It would have received five stars were it not for my personal wish for a "three chapter edit." It's not that the "sex" chapters were untrue, it's just that I didn't like them -- they were unlovely.

But I also think they were good, and deeply important for someone naive like myself to read. I'm, for better or for worse (pun, intended), just now getting to the age where I'm seeing the hard parts of marriage - friends splitting up, adultery in people I wouldn't have thought capable of it - the outside world, in all its darkness, peaking through sometimes my blessedly sunny, star-studded nights, strawberries for breakfast, and loving all the time marriage. It helps me empathise, and it helps me be ever so grateful for the simplicity that has been, so far, my life.

And, it makes me thankful for Christianity. The one cohesive worldview that I have found, that makes sense of all the disparate parts of life -- the flawed nature of humans, the deep desire to be loved, the egotism we all have to contend with, the respectability of women, the shortcomings and the celebrations of Romanticism.

Possibly the best book I've read so far this year, and likely one that will bear rereading sometime in the future.

Read-alikes include: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner (for the ordinary beauty and the beautiful ordinariness of life), On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (for a rocky marriage story) and the Quotidian Mysteries by Kathleen Norris (for a look at quotidian life). Watch-alikes: About Time and (500) Days of Summer. ...more

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May 13, 2017 Mike rated it it was amazing

Very much enjoyed this review of the course of the average life and it's trials and foibles. Of course it isn't your life, but a surprising number of parts might rhyme with yours.

The ultimate lesson that in-love isn't a feeling but a decision and commitment to oneself more than anyone rang true for me, and found much to take away from the book to ponder. ...more

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Jun 17, 2023 Kemlo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, philosophy, psychology-mental-health

Interesting and thought-provoking. The story of a couple who meet, fall in love, get married, have children…and then learn what it means to be ready for a lifelong commitment to an intimate partner. The writing style and voice take a little getting used to, and reflections on what it means to love alternate with the story itself. There were times when I wanted to argue and disagree with the author about the assertions he made, but that’s part of what made the book intriguing.

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