eat. pray. love.

I'm sure many of you have already read this book, but if you haven't I urge you to do so. It had been hyped up so much that it took me over a year to actually sit down and get into it. (It's a personality fault of mine - if everyone else is doing it, I tend to run the other direction.) Thankfully, I swallowed that pride (or foolishness) and devoured Elizabeth Gilbert's year in Italy, India and Indonesia.

Another reason for waiting to read this is because I recently read a memoir that was very poorly done. It tarnished my ideas of what a memoir is and I was turned off from the concept for a little while. Eat Pray Love is like a breath of fresh air. I actually felt calmer while reading it. Her ventures into food and meditation and yoga and life made me stop and evaluate my own methods of doing things. It helped me realize that I am a person who needs a bit of quiet time each day, but that I also want to be hanging out with people whenever possible. I took a yoga class all last summer, and reading about the solitude and peace she felt during a meditative retreat made me long for those classes once again.

I don't want to give too much away for those of you have have yet to read it, but I do strongly encourage you to pick up a copy and revel in her witty, self-aware writing. She has an eye for detail and an uncanny ability to describe people that makes everything about the real-life characters she encounters charming and fresh. I think you'll love it.

And once you've read it, let's go to the film together!

p.s. The song in this is Dog Days Are Over by Florence and the Machine - check it out here!