Overall a fascinating read, though a bit more "high-brow" than my usual fare. Having a background in the classics, as in OLD classics, would help to make more of it understandable. And sometimes I got a little lost in his logic. However, the points of view on the different types of love were very useful to me, in reflecting on my own life and relationships. If I were to sum up the effect on me in one word, it would be "clarifying."

I am an incurable romantic; nevertheless through the years I have adopted more and more a non-romantic view of marriage relationships. One of my wife's and my favorite sayings is, "Nacimos para amarnos." Loosely translated it means we were made for each other. Part of me believes it was our destiny to meet and become life partners, that we were uniquely suited to each other. But another part of me believes our relationship succeeded not because we each found that one and only person that we could be happy with, but rather because of God's Love and His influence in our lives, our commitment to Him and each other, and our willingness to change and sacrifice along the way. The fact that my wife is an absolute angel is, of course, also a factor! We are still very much "in love" but it's not anything like the "cupid" phenomenon that first drew us together. So I have often mused on "being in love" and how that relates to present and future happiness in married life. In many cases, it seems, people put too much emphasis on the romantic side of prospective relationships, and in others not enough. C.S. Lewis provides an excellent perspective on this issue, and the idea of balancing different considerations, in his Eros discussion.