Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl WilsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I can't say that this book turned me into a Celine Dion fan, but it did affirm my guilty love for other sentimental love songs. Yes, that is a confession. I secretly get a little excited when I hear songs like "You don't Bring me Flowers Anymore" or "When I Need You". I sang along for hours to those big, sappy, melodic songs on rainy days when I was a kid. My poor parents... Of course as a teen, I denied, denied, denied. Liking those songs was as dangerous to my social standing as high-water pants and a peck on the cheek by my mom in public. Now as an adult and after reading this book, I understand a little more why these songs are appealing. Really they are the musical version of soap operas and sappy movies, they allow us to feel big emotions through someone else's experience. Wilson explores in this well written and well thought out memoir the psychology and philosophy behind our musical tastes and guilty pleasures. He doesn't defend Celine or tell you really you're wrong for not liking her, he turns her into a real person and confirms that she is bad but that bad isn't always unbearable. Again, I am not going to fill my ipod full of Celine but I am going to reserve my judgement and stifle my chortle when someone says they like Brittany Spears or Adam Lambert.
View all my reviews >>
