Since biological anthropologist Helen Fisher first published “The Anatomy of Love’’ in 1992, much has changed in the landscape of the study of romance and mating. In her just-released, updated version of the book, Fisher, a senior research fellow at The Kinsey Institute, draws on her own brain research and data gathered from more 80,000 people to explain Cupid’s arrow.

BOOKS: What are you reading currently?

FISHER: I’ve been reading “Aimless Love’’ by Billy Collins. He’s hilarious. I bought a book called “My Dear Mother,’’ a collection of letters by famous men to their moms by Karen Elizabeth Gordon and Holly Johnson. They are asking their mothers for money and apologizing for not writing, doing all those crazy things we still do. What I’ve really done over the past year is read academic articles having to do with the fossil record and current trends in love and relationships for my own book. I love “Going Solo’’ by sociologist Eric Klinenberg. It’s a very smart discussion about the number of people living alone currently. I recently read Andrew J. Cherlin’s “The Marriage-Go-Round,’’ which I enjoyed. Now I’m really reading business books because I’m going to write a business book next.

BOOKS: Are there any business books you would recommend?

FISHER: Not a single one. They are not helpful, and they are obvious. There’s one point for 250 pages.

BOOKS: What do you read for pleasure?

FISHER: I’m a work freak. I’m not sure I ever read for pure pleasure unless I’m on a plane for 14 hours, and my computer battery dies. Then I get into a P.G. Wodehouse and laugh myself silly. But when I read for myself I’ll pick up nonfiction related to my work such as neurologist Antonio Damasio’s books. I love “Descartes’ Error.’’ I just read “Willpower’’ by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney. I love that book too. I’m a person who lives for ideas. Though you can get them in novels, it’s very time consuming. You can get an idea out of a poem quickly and move on to something like “Willpower’’ and get a huge number of facts.

BOOKS: Did you always feel that way about novels?

FISHER: Yes, but fortunately for 18 years I lived with a wonderful man who read to me every night. He read me almost all of Shakespeare and almost all of Ibsen. He read me Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain’’ and Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield.’’ He must have read over 200 books to me.

BOOKS: Do you read a lot of poetry?

FISHER: I have 250 poetry books. I tried to memorize some Shakespeare, but right now I’m memorizing a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind.’’ I’m not good at memorizing. It takes me hours and hours.

BOOKS: Why do you memorize poems?

FISHER: I travel a lot, and there are times when I’m in the back of a car for seven hours, and I have nothing to do. I like to spout it off to myself then. But I think I memorize poems just because I like knowing them.

BOOKS: When did you start reading poetry?

FISHER: When I sent in a copy of my first book to my editor in 1982 he said, “You should have some bits of poetry at the beginning of the each chapter.’’ Then I started buying poetry books. I read “The New Oxford Book of English Verse,’’ “The Oxford Book of American Poetry,’’ and “The “Norton Anthology of Poetry’’ from front to back. I underlined as I went. I still use some of those lines in my work or in e-mails.

BOOKS: Was there a book that was pivotal to your career?

FISHER: Jane Goodall’s “In the Shadow of Man.’’ I read it in 1968 when I was just beginning grad school. I had majored in psychology and anthropology in college, but I didn’t see the continuity between man and beast. That is what I was interested in, how we are all connected. I remember reading Goodall’s book, things like how a baby chimpanzee can be jealous. I began to see this was the explanation of human behavior, all this biological heritage. That book set me going.

AMY SUTHERLAND

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