The Best Book

"It was a cold November, around three o'clock in the morning. My husband was sleeping in our bed. I was hiding in the bathroom for something like the forty-seventh consecutive night, and -- just as during all those nights before -- I was sobbing. Sobbing so hard, in fact, that a great lake of tears and snot was spreading before me on the bathroom tiles, a veritable Lake Inferior (if you will) of all my shame and fear and confusion and grief. I don't want to be married anymore."


"I equal parts loved him and could not stand him... Let it be sufficient to say that, on this night, he was still my lighthouse and my albatross in equal measure. The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying; the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving. I didn't want to destroy anything or anybody. I just wanted to slip quietly out the back door, without causing any fuss or consequences and then not stop running until I reached Greenland."

Does that sound like anyone you know? Really? How about this:


"I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men. I have always fallen in love fast and without measuring risks. I have a tendency to only see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and then I have hung on to the relationship for a long time (sometimes far too long) waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness. Many times in romance I have been a victim of my own optimism."

I swear that Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love was the best, most thought-provoking book I've read in ages. We must be kindred spirits. Thanks to my mom for giving me this Bestseller for Christmas. It's a must read for any woman who's searching for anything in her life, be it spirituality, self-actualization, love, or just something different.

Excerpts from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (c) 2006, Penguin Books.