C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) is renowned for his popularizations about the Anglican Christianity and his fiction. He wrote nearly 40 books and gave radio talks (see “Mere Christianity,” book 53) that reached millions in WWII Britain. (For his books I've read, click on his name.)

This book, written in first person, presents his insights in a more-or-less chronological order. In Ch 1, “Introduction,” he describes “Gift-love” and “Need-love,” with Divine Love as Gift-love. Ch 2, “Likings and Loves for the Sub-Human,” discusses “Pleasures” and “Appreciations,” such as “love” of country, school, regiment, family or class. Ch 3, “Affection,” discusses a “liking” type of “love” with familiarity as a crucial part. Since Lewis is a good one-liner source, Ch 3 gave me “Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our natural lives.” (If nothing else, it makes you think.) Ch 4, “Friendship,” describes close personal relationships and its dangers of exclusion. Ch 5, “Eros,” is the state of “being in love.” One-liner: “Sexual desire, without Eros, wants it, the thing in itself; Eros wants the Beloved.” Ch 6, “Charity” (i.e. Agape) is better than all the rest of the book. “God is love.” “This primal love is Gift-love.” “With this, all things are possible.” Without this, the other types of love are weakened. Ch 1-5 are mainly “common sense,” written in Lewis’ style (i.e., for the ear as much as for the eye). But I highly recommend Ch 6, where C. S. Lewis goes well beyond common sense.