The Book of Love

by Diane Ackerman

How do we define love? "It feels like hunger pains, and we use the same word. Pang. Perhaps this is why Cupid is depicted with a quiver of arrows, because love feels at times like being pierced in the chest. It is a wholesome violence. . . . People search for love as if it were a city lost beneath the desert dunes, where pleasure is the law, the streets are lined with brocade cushions, and the sun never sets." So writes Diane Ackerman in her insightful...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393045897
• ISBN13: 9780393045895
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 864 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.1" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Win points with your Valentine with this one!

Homework was done on this book, an anthology of some of history's best poets and thinkers on Love. Diane Ackerman starts off in the Intro with the age-old question ~What Is Love~ She writes, "It feels like hunger pains, and we use the same word. Pang." Nice to keep in your reception area, or great for the romantics on your list. Highly recommended anytime but makes a great Valentine's Day gift.

A great collection, although a bit thick

This book provides a great collection of love-related essays, poems, and stories, as well as book excerpts. I tried, mistakenly, to read this book from cover to cover and got too bogged down. I think it is great for a reference (I used it to find one of the readings for my civil ceremony wedding), and great to pick up every now and then, open it randomly, and start reading. But, don't try to read it beginning to end!

For those who love love.

This is a delightful collection, containing both the arcane and well-known classics. If I could send one book free to everyone I know, this would be the one.

There are some wonderful pieces in this book.

I very much enjoyed this compilation. It contains a wonderful piece by Joe McConkey, "Idyll", that I am grateful to have discovered. I read a library copy, but plan to buy one to keep.