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A review by literarylover37
A Book About Love by Jonah Lehrer
2.0
Thanks to Goodreads for a copy of this book.
First of all, I thought it was good that Lehrer acknowledged all of the plagiarism from his previous works and took ownership of the fall-out surrounding that right from the very first page. That being said, I felt like this book was a really great compilation of LOADS of research (which was meticulously footnoted and cited, as it should have been) but very little by way of original thought.
If you are looking for a book that gathers research over the topic of different kinds of love (between adults, within marriage, towards kids, even regarding religion) then this is your book. I had to force myself through it though because it was DRY. Also having an educational background in psychology means that I've heard of probably half of these studies already so it was not anything new. Even the parts that were just Lehrer talking, seemed...well....trite? I got the feeling this book was his attempt to honor his wife for sticking with him and to prove that he could write without ripping people off. In the end, I appreciated the effort more than the final product.
First of all, I thought it was good that Lehrer acknowledged all of the plagiarism from his previous works and took ownership of the fall-out surrounding that right from the very first page. That being said, I felt like this book was a really great compilation of LOADS of research (which was meticulously footnoted and cited, as it should have been) but very little by way of original thought.
If you are looking for a book that gathers research over the topic of different kinds of love (between adults, within marriage, towards kids, even regarding religion) then this is your book. I had to force myself through it though because it was DRY. Also having an educational background in psychology means that I've heard of probably half of these studies already so it was not anything new. Even the parts that were just Lehrer talking, seemed...well....trite? I got the feeling this book was his attempt to honor his wife for sticking with him and to prove that he could write without ripping people off. In the end, I appreciated the effort more than the final product.