Book Review

ok.. i din feel like working today after a sunday duty and so i picked up this book from a colleague and started reading it. Found it to be quite a good read and just to put it down to whoever might be interested.

Basically this book is written by Gary Chapman who studies human relationships and he sorta classify how we love/be loved in 5 ways, which he terms it the 5 languages of love.

3 things that I found intriguing from (speed) reading it.

Firstly is of course the 5 languages itself, which are (and briefly what they mean):

Words of Affirmation -: Words of encouragement and/or appreciation.
Gift of Love -: Little gifts that shows the love or that shows that the person was in your mind. The author cited an example of a little girl plucking her first flower for her mother.
Quality Time -: Undivided attention when together. The joy of doing this together, rather than the activity itself.
Acts of Service -: The act of doing something for the person. Be it running errands or helping out in their work
Physical Touch -: A little hug or just touching the elbow or a pat on the back.

Secondly, is the idea that how your primary language of love for receiving might be different from that of giving. For example, myself is not really good with words of affirmation but i do like to receive them. Sets me thinking abit.

And last but not least. There is this paragraph in the early chapters of the book that talks about the two stages of dating. Stage One is the obsession or passionate stage where you would like to see the other every minute or some say when the spark is always there. The honeymoon period so to speak. This stage tend to be the most exciting part but is usually shortlived. (about 2 years) But there is this Stage Two that not everyone is aware of. The period where the couple gets comfortable with each other and the excitement or spark had supposedly died off. But to Chapman this stage is the more important stage. In this stage, love had to be thought of and acted upon, where it is important to nurture love as compared to "things will happen" as they were in stage one. Or in plain language. Effort needs to be put in to sustain and grow the love. To just do the things that you would do for the good of your loved one. Er... the book put it across better...

Go read it. :)