On the day after Valentine’s Day let’s take a look at the best book about love I have ever read, written by one of the most warm, passionate men I have even witnessed.
Friday is Book & Movie Day on the blog, when we focus on texts and films – old and new — that I highly recommend you not miss. This week’s recommendation: Love, by Leo Buscaglia.
I heard Leo Buscaglia speak once. He presented a lecture to a packed high school auditorium in the town where I was living, and it was a highlight of my life. This was a man whose heart was huge with love for life and for everything and everyone in life. He took nothing and no one for granted, and marveled at the little things — flowers on the side of the road, the shape of the clouds today, a chance remark or simple utterance from a friend or stranger. All of life intrigued Leo Buscaglia, and all of life was his to love to pieces. And he did.
When he gave a lecture, he threw himself into it in his entirety. Nothing was held back. Not an ounce of energy, not a tiny portion of Self. All of it was given, in fullness.
I remember Leo’s astonishment at the title of his book. “Can you believe it?” he said, his voice utterly mystified, “no one had ever published a book by this title before!”
He then explained how, when he was in the process of writing the book…

…he did a records search for the title that he wished to use. First, he said, he struggled with the title. He wanted to write a book about “love,” and he wanted “a snappy title, something people would remember.” But he couldn’t come up with anything that he thought was clever. Then he said to himself, “Why not call it, simply, ‘LOVE’?”
Naw, he told himself, there must be a thousand books by that title. “I wanted something original,” he chuckled as he related the story to his audience. Still, he did a title search just for the heck of it. “And do you know what???” he told us, agasp, “I found out there had not been a single book by that name in the history of publishing!”
So he titled his book, LOVE, with a sub-title, What Life Is All About. And his talk that night on the text was lightning. I remember him in constant motion on the stage, smiling, laughing, raising his voice one minute, whispering into the microphone in the next. He pulled out a handkerchief repeatedly and wiped perspiration from his brow. He was working up there — and having the time of his life.
“It’s not enough to have lived,” he told us that night. “We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.”
It is a idea that he shared everywhere he went, and I was on fire with it. That evening I had been truly inspired.
Leo celebrated his Continuation Day in 1998 at age 74. His words will ring in the ears of humanity through decades and centuries to come, and they can inspire you, too, now, in this perfectly lovely book, which will never get old.
From a Leo Buscaglia website comes this information:
Leo was teaching in the Department of Special Education at the University of Southern California in the late 1960s when one of his students committed suicide. She had been one of the sets of “kind eyeballs” he always looked for in the large auditorium, because her responses showed him that at least one student was hearing what he said, so the news that she killed herself had a great impact on him. [“What are we doing stuffing facts into people and forgetting that they are human beings?”]
This incident led him to form a non-credit class titled Love 1A. There were no grades. (How could you potentially fail someone in this class? That wouldn’t be very loving!) The class led to lectures and a manuscript loosely based on what was shared in those weekly classes. The book found a publisher – and an author surprised to find that the simple title LOVE had never previously been claimed, allowing him to say, “I have the copyright on LOVE!”
Buscaglia said he never taught this class, only facilitated it, adding that he learned as much as anyone. Someone from a Public Broadcasting System affiliate heard one of his talks and arranged to tape a later presentation, eventually showing it during a pledge drive. The response was so strong that it was presented to the national office for consideration. There was great resistance, because a professor simply standing at a podium lecturing was considered old-fashioned, something from the old days of “educational television.” Still, the message and delivery were so compelling that they gave it a try, and Leo Buscaglia’s warm presentations touched viewers’ hearts through the cool medium of television nearly as effectively as they did in person.
He has been called the “granddaddy of motivational speakers” on television. His simple message delivered in a dynamic style made him a popular guest on television talk shows, as well as on the lecture circuit. At one time five of his books were on The New York Times Best Sellers List simultaneously.
Leo Buscaglia was a cheerleader for life. “Life is a banquet,” he would say, quoting from the movie “Auntie Mame,” ” and most poor fools are starving to death.” He was most closely associated with the topic of love and human relationships, emphasizing the value of positive human touch, especially hugs.
This association with hugging became his trademark at lectures, where thousands of people would stand patiently waiting to hug him after a presentation. It was not uncommon for him to give a talk of about an hour, then stay afterwards signing books and hugging for at least twice that long. This came about when someone spontaneously offered him a congratulatory hug following an early speech. A line formed, and it became an anticipated part of future events.
Time restraints on occasion would dictate that those towards the end of the line would have to choose between a hug and an autograph. Nearly all chose the physical connection with this inspiring speaker. And he almost never left until he met everyone in line. Should someone be left out because they hadn’t pushed to the front? Those would have been people he would have missed experiencing, he said, and that would have left him a lesser person.
(from the website The World of Leo Buscaglia, at http://www.buscaglia.com/)
I want you to read this book, LOVE. Here’s what the write-up on the book jacket says about it…
“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.”
And here is a review by A. G. West found at Amazon.com:
“This is a 5-star book because it can change vastly the way you see things. It’ll also make you want to bring love directly into your life and to give it to everyone around you.
“The book covered the essential aspects of living in love and what love really is all about. Buscaglia will make you realize how important it is to study love but more importantly to live in it.”
My own personal review: The best book about love I have ever read. The most heart-warming, most inspiring, most exciting and elevating text on this subject you could ever hope to find. Do not, do not, miss it.