The Romantic Movement: Sex, Shopping, and the Novel

Entertaining, occasionally thought-provoking, but not one of De Botton's best. Indeed, in many ways it's simply a rehash of Essays in Love and Kiss and Tell, both of which were better.

The biggest problem is that the author doesn't seem to like his characters very much. I understand he doesn't want to appear snobbish, so he decided to write about "ordinary people" in an "ordinary relationship". That's fine, but he should be careful not to confuse ordinary with banal.

Rather boring, when comparing to the other essays of Botton.
Between the stories of a regular single woman chasing her dream-guy and the way-too-scientific explanations on the individual-in-love, I found myself often annoyed.
Not sure whether I was expecting more of a novel... certainly got more on shopping and the 'theory of love', in details, described with charts and diagrams ! Was hoping to forget for a moment about engineering - so I guess I chose the wrong book.

Still, AdB is really worth reading - will give him few more chances, I only read a couple of his works.