My reasons for reading “Eat, Pray, Love” were purely selfish. I had no need for inner enlightenment, (so I thought) or urge to live vicariously through another. I love the idea of 4 months in Italy, but had no desire to hear someone else’s account of it, and while meeting some beautiful Brazilian man sounds appealing, it’s just not in my cards.
Nope, simply put… I just wanted to watch the movie. (Which means in “OCD Land” that I had to read the book first.)
My hopes for EPL were a big fat goose egg. I am (admittedly) not that big of a fan of Non-fiction, but the more I read, the more I realized this book was not about 1 one woman’s journey to find the things she felt she had lost, no… this book was a 12 month experience in what your head, and heart can handle if you make up your mind to confront them.
Now, I can’t really breakdown this book in the traditional sense (which is one of the reason’s I choose to avoid novel’s like this) but I can offer you a little insight into how it reads. Elizabeth Gilbert is witty. Amidst the paragraphs of self loathing, and her search for the perfect meditation mantra she tends to crack jokes at herself. This is a very good thing, otherwise it would basically be 400 pages of college level psychology classes, and Gandhi talk. Instead… think of this as a week long discovery channel mini-series on the inner workings of traditional and non-traditional prayer, add a dash of pizza obsession, a few (very awkward) banana references and viola, you have Gilbert’s travel journal.
What could have very easily been the most boring book on the planet was actually entertaining, and while yes… Gilbert tends to get a little wordy in places, (oh dear lord please answer MY prayer and make her move on) in the end I didn’t seem to mind so much. The topics in which I was learning about were things I never (in a million years) would have guessed myself caring about, yet I found myself unable to stop reading about them, engrossed by the semblance of them all I guess you could say.
In the end I would concur that my eyes have been opened, my head has been scolded, and my respect for yoga has grown exponentially.
My final thoughts: This book is DEFINITELY not for everyone. If you are one of those people that demand a plot, and could careless for mundane details like; why guru’s have 109 beads on their prayer necklaces, then this book will act like Ambien and lull you to sleep in minutes, but if you are a non-fiction fan, and don’t mind learning a few new things, take a chance on it; you just might find some inner peace yourself.
Happy Reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: “Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.”
[Rating:3.5/5]Movie Trailer
I did not like this book. I didn’t finish it. I didn’t get past the Eat part O.O I saw the movie and I didn’t like that either. Oh well.