Essays In Love

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This book is worth reading because De Botton is very good at analysing each stage of his relationship with Chloe and it is fascinating to see Botton's character laid down in detail. Written in the style of a novel, this genre-defying book charts the relationship of a man and a woman from the first kiss to the onset of anxiety and heartbreak, illuminating emotions we have all felt but perhaps never fully understood. Perhaps it was not love we wanted after all, perhaps it was simply someone in whom to believe, but how can we continue to believe the the beloved now that they believe in us?

If I could be that beacon of hope for someone, I hope that I won’t be too caught up in whether my stomach is too big or that I don’t have a six-pack. I wonder whether De Botton would have written a very different book today, at the age of 40, than when this was written in his early 20's?I do the same and I didn’t realise it was a thing everyone did (again, I need to force this book onto someone to DISCUSS). It is my absurdist side that an absurdist person will draw out of me, and my seriousness that a serious person will evoke. If self-hatred gains the upper hand, then the one who has received love will declare that the beloved (on some excuse or other) is not good enough for them (not good enough by virtue of associating with no-goods). I know I wouldn’t reject someone if they reciprocated my feelings solely on the basis of them loving me.

I have a lot of time for Alain de Botton, I loved 'A Week At The Airport' and enjoyed 'The Consolations of Philosophy'.Through the ordinary story of two young people, who met on an airplane from Paris to London and fell in love soon after, De Botton went into extraordinary depth in analysing the nuances, the emotional swings, the sweet and sour we all identify in a relationship. When you realise that you’re starting to move on, I think it can be a little sad that this person doesn’t have as strong an effect on you anymore.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.It may be a sign that two people have stopped loving one another (or at least stopped wishing to make the effort that constitutes ninety per cent of love) when they are no longer able to spin differences into jokes. We would not love if there were no lack within us, but we are offended by the discovery of a similar lack in the other. There’s an essay on how uncomfortable it can be to disagree with a lover’s taste in shoes and a lengthy discussion about the role of guilt in love. The more familiar two people become, the more the language they speak together departs from that of the ordinary, dictionary-defined discourse. He never disappoints and the titles of his books are usually clear and very indicative of what you're hoping a book will be.