Love: What Life Is All About [Paperback]

Leo F. Buscaglia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 27, 1996

This book is about love. What it is and what it isn't. It is about you--and about everybody who has ever reached out to touch the heart of another. Among many other lessons of the heart, Leo Buscaglia reminds us: Love is open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself.


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

This book is about love. What it is and what it isn't. It is about you--and about everybody who has ever reached out to touch the heart of another. Among many other lessons of the heart, Leo Buscaglia reminds us: Love is open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself.


From the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (August 27, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449911624
• ISBN-13: 978-0449911624
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,145 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I don't agree with everything he says, but do recommend this, July 5, 2002

By 

R. Tiedemann "Sunnye" (Bellevue, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love: What Life Is All About (Paperback)

Here's a call to everyone to put aside their fears and prejudices and give themselves over to love.

Our scientifically oriented society, says Buscaglia, is prejudiced against love as a power to affect the human condition. Society sees love as "supercilious, unscientific bosh." The individual must develop him- or herself to the fullest to discover and celebrate her own uniqueness. Society wrongly teaches us to value a person for what she has rather than who she is or what she does. Buscaglia sounds the battle cry for freedom -- refuse to be molded into a likeness deemed "proper" by societal codes. Rather, be free to become your own person, loving yourself and your fellowman.

Everyone should have someone in his or her life who says, "I will love you no matter what...if you fall on your face, if you do the wrong thing, if you make mistakes, if you behave like a human being -- I will love you no matter."

He's pretty hard on the educational system, saying it has stifled individuality and creativity in children. "The true fuction of the child's education should be the process of helping him to discover his uniqueness, aiding him toward its development and teaching him how to share it with others." This is where I take issue with him, having pretty well agreed up to this point. Our schools have excelled in doing that very thing to the detriment of the three R's and as a result we have college freshmen who are arrogant and disrespectful, who have never read a book and who can't spell. (I speak from personal experience in teaching college level creative writing.)

I do agree with his emphasis on honesty and truth, however, believing as I do that it is the very foundation of our society and has not been emphasized to children for much too long.

Do read this one. It's a book that will confront you and make you think. You may or may not agree with him -- or with me -- but you will enjoy analyzing his points and developing your own views on the subjects.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love 101: The class EVERYONE should take, July 13, 2006

By 

Phillip W. Daniel Jr. "Learning to truly Live" (Lompoc, Calif. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love: What Life Is All About (Paperback)

Everyone should read,no make that study Leo's books. This book opened my eyes and softened my heart. Anyone who reads it with an open mind will find themselves transformed. I am someone who grew up VERY ANGRY. My anger caused me problems upon problems and was a contributing factor in the breakup of my first marriage. When I hit rock bottom and knew things had to change, it was then that I came across a worn, slightly abuse copy of a book at a second hand store. The Title on it was simply "LOVE". Don't misunderstand me, I am far from free from my anger. Yet, those who know me will tell you how much I have changed. I feel Leo books, DVD's (I have several), and tapes have been a major factor in that change. I recommend ALL items by Leo Buscaglia.

Leo talks not only about loving others, but loving yourself. Love your face, even if your nose doesn't quite match the rest of your face. Love yourself for who you are, no matter who that may be. It's the funny and odd things about us that sometimes makes us the most loveable. So, buy this book and, if your paying attention to what is said in it, learn to laugh, hug, cry (yes, even grown men can cry), and fall in love with this rollercoster we call life.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing book! You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll love it, December 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Love: What Life Is All About (Paperback)

I am so grateful this book is back in print! This short, funny, easy to read book will profoundly change your life and how you view the people close to you. Although you can easily finish it in a weekend, you'll want to read it again every 18 months or so as your life changes to bring you "back" to your center. Everyone I've ever lent it to adored it so much, I've given away over a dozen copies. It is unfortunate that his lectures based on this book are not available on Video, as Leo's personal mannerisms and speaking style are so warm and funny, they really enhance the subject.