Did you write the book of love?

So I’m a little late with this, but after all the festivities of the season of love, I couldn’t resist doing my own post on the topic. Because love is so much a part of the fabric of being human, it’s inevitable that some of that energy gets transferred into our reading endeavors. Indeed, there’s an entire genre — romance — devoted to love, and a great number of self-help books are focused on the topic as well. I don’t read much romance, but a couple years ago I read a pair of fantastic books, Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan, that I was absolutely floored by. They center on an academic couple who travel to Singapore so Nick can introduce Rachel to his family — but it turns out Nick’s family is fabulously wealthy, so there’s all kinds of intrigue around that, and the portraits of the lifestyles are incredibly sumptuous. Really fun reads, and when I went to look them up for this post I found out that there’s a third one out! So of course I ordered that. I don’t think I’ll be turning into a romance reader anytime soon, but that doesn’t make it any less delightful to dip into on occasion.

I went on a short roadtrip for the President’s Day weekend, and of course I hit up a couple bookstores while I was strolling through downtowns. One of my finds was a little book on the art of flirtation, Parisian Charm School by Jamie Cat Callan. It’s pretty delightful so far, full of vivid anecdotes and adorable advice. Of course what most endeared me to the book was that some of her earliest advice in it is to read a lot! She’s actually pretty adamant about the importance of being well-read to being witty and a good conversationalist. I have to admit none of the other books I’m reading are as fun as that one. I’m already almost halfway through it and I just picked it up in Santa Cruz yesterday. I can hardly put it down. But tomorrow is a full day off with no plans; hooray for long weekends. So hopefully I’m going to finish both Computer Science Distilled and A History of Japanese Mathematics; adding those two to my list of ‘Books Read 2018’ will feel great. Anyway, books about love. There are quite a few lists floating around the internet already about books on love; I’ve linked one I liked below. And a really delightful article about words for love in different languages from Fluent in 3 Months (if you haven’t seen the blog before, you should check it out).

Hope your love season was as wonderful as mine was. And here’s to bringing a little love to the rest of the year!

Ten Love and Relationship Books — a list by the Huffington Post

Twenty-Eight Words for Love — a list by Benny Lewis of Fluent in 3 Months