I'm late on this one and I like that.

I heard about Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert a long time ago.  Lynette emailed me and said I HAD to read the book.  I had actually read an excerpt in Oprah magazine and I made a mental note to investigate since I enjoyed the excerpt then forgot.  I wanted to read the book but I didn't want to pay full price for it since it had been out for over a year by the time I found out about it so each time I went to Half Price Books I'd look for it.  They couldn't keep a copy on the shelf.

I like to go against the grain when it comes to books.  I really, really, really wanted to read The Measure of A Man by Sidney Poitier but the minute it became an Oprah Book Club pick, I couldn't fathom knowing that I would be reading the exact same book as millions.  I'm very weird in this way and I'm cool with that.

I've been a reader from the jump.  I love where books take me.  I love escaping inside a book.  And I love the feel of turning the page of a book.  The very thought of a Kindle makes me throw up a little.  Books on tape, what? No thanks.

I love discovering a book quite by accident and loving it so much that I want to sing it from the mountain tops.  The book jacket can draw me in or maybe the title.  And 2 pages in, I have to be in.  I can't stand a slow and confusing book.

Back to Eat, Pray, Love.  I think I was ordering something from Amazon.com, yes I remember.  It was Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (God, I love her) and I figured while I was there, might as well see what seller was selling E,P,L.  I ordered both books and gave myself a hug for treating myself to something I really wanted.

I decided to read the E,P,L first because I already knew I would love Unaccustomed Earth and with good books, I tend to stall so it can last longer.  All I knew about the book is that a woman documents her journey after divorce in her travels to Italy to eat, to India to pray and to Indonesia to love.

Immeadiately I loved Liz's writing style and made it past the forst 2 pages in 1 minute.  Great, test passed.  I made it through Italy and seriously self checked myself cause the best thing I took away from Italy was how to curse in Italian.  Hmmm..people say this book changed their lives and all I enjoyed was the Italian cursing?!  Who am I? I even said the curse words out loud and enjoyed feeling them slide off my tongue.

I soldiered on because surely I had to get what the masses got from this book. No one ever mentioned cursing in all the reviews.  I'm very funny about religion.  Not at all funny about spiritually.  My brain tends to turn off the minute I hear the words, "Jesus will save your soul."  Actually the words don't bother me, it is the people who say them that turn me off.  I was raised Presbyterian and even did a 5 year stint at a Catholic boarding school then 1 year at a Baptist one.  To say I grew weary of organized religion is an understatement.

So yeah, India was not the part of the book that I was looking forward to.  But the joke was on me cause it was in India that I could relate to Liz the most.  I have such a hard time quieting my mind and those paragraphs when Liz describes how her mind wonders when she tries to quieten it were written for ME, I swear!  I can never just be alone with my thoughts.  I sleep with the TV on much to the horror of my husband.  I have even passed this nasty habit to my children...the horror!  I look forward to bath time but I have to have a book or music in the tub.

And dear, sweet creator India was where I was introduced to Richard from Texas!  I so need a Richard from Texas in my life.  Someone to get it to me straight, no chaser.

I kept reading paragrphs out loud to my husband and he was so excited that I was excited because I was soooooo getting this.

Getting to Indonesia and the Love part was cool too but I have to say India is where it was at for me.

So yeah I loved this book and plan on reading it again and again and again.  It is one of those that will not look so pretty because it will go into the tub with me and will have highlighters of all colors in it..Yay!  Liz stopped at Love but I'm keeping it going with Breathe, Live, and Grow.

And I'll always have this quote from Richard:

"You got to stop wishing. You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be."

AMEN