Book Review: The Four Loves

 If you are looking for an easy read, this is not your book. C.S. Lewis once again delivers a truck full of thought-provoking musings in The Four Loves. Originally I thought it would be a nice quick read since it was only 141 pages, but each page was so packed it took longer to get through. It's non-fiction, and not necessarily one of his classics, but overall very good.

The book is essentially a long essay on love and the different types of love we have for different people in our lives. The only big downside was that Lewis is very smart and extremely well-read, and he assumes you are also and does not give you any citations or references, which I would have loved. It's very interesting and full of fantastic one-liners, like all of his books are, including the following:

"Those who do not love the fellow-villagers or fellow-townsmen whom they have seen are not likely to have got very far towards loving "Man" whom they have not" (p. 24).

"A false transcendence is given to things which are very much of this world" (p. 29).

"Affection opens our eyes to goodness we could not have seen, or should not have appreciated without it" (p. 37).

"Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities" (p. 71).

"We have reached the stage at which nothing is more needed than a roar of old-fashioned laughter" (p. 98).

"Nothing is falser than the idea that mockery is necessarily hostile. Until they have a baby to laugh at, lovers are always laughing at each other" (p. 107).

"The only place outside Heaven where you can perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell" (p. 121).

"We cannot see light, but by light we can see all things" (p. 126).

Okay, sorry, that's plenty. I really did like this book, although it stretched me a quite a bit intellectually. I am going to give it

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I have already started and gotten well into my next book, the first for the book club I started, which is Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. I am so excited to share this book with you very soon as it is so far, super awesome!