All About Love
Ratings101
Average rating3.7
15
- I guess this is what therapy would feel like *
It took me almost two months to finish this 240 page book. Why? Because it was bloody intense!
all about love as the name suggests talks about all of our ideas, preconceptions, practises and biases around love. It doesn't focus only on romantic love or do a weird sexist gimmicky thing on ‘men are from mars and women are from venus' BS.
Bell Hooks talks us through her ideas, while also quotes various other philosophers and thinkers, discussing various dimensions and ideas around both the concept and practise of love. Her writing is deeply personal and empathetic, making the book feel like a great storyteller and a listener. It's weird because I never felt that way with a “self bettering” book before. I never felt like it was listening to my thoughts and reactions to the words printed on the paper.
Bell Hooks, being a feminist thinker, also brings forward our societies naturalisation of various misogynistic behaviour associated with the act of loving and nurturing. While also suggesting how to alter certain toxic behaviours and ideas to live (and love) your best self.
This book also gave one of the most accurate and precise definition of love that I have learned to adapt and add to my personal dictionary. It goes, “Affection is only one ingredient of love. To truly love we must learn to mix various ingredients—care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication.”
Personally, this book did feel a little too idealistic in some parts. Certain aspects felt unrealistic to implement or experience in the long term. Nonetheless the ideas and learnings from this are something I see myself revisiting.
My highlights and notes with this one are dense, hoping to convert it as a blog post soon.
August 6, 2020