Eat Pray Love
My sister-in-law recently sent this book to me and I had to recommend it because it is such a great travel read... or read for travelers. Elizabeth Gilbert is a lost 30-something woman who leaves her life behind for a one-year adventure to find herself in the three I's: Italy, India and Indonesia.
This story is evenly divided recounting her travels in each of the three countries. What caught me most about the book is Elizabeth's sincere yet unapologetic storytelling and her self-deprecating tone. She experiences independent travel in its best form: by living in the countries she visits and immersing herself in the local cultures. In Italy she discovers the pleasures of life through pasta and Italian lessons; in India she explores devotion by living in an Ashram and practicing meditation; in Indonesia she finds true happiness and observes its benefits spilling over to those around her as she manages to raise the funds for a local woman and her family to buy a proper home.
Elizabeth is well-traveled, which makes her stories that much more appreciable. One of my favorite passages of the book is this one:
"I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby - I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to - I just don't care."
It's a great read for armchair travelers as well as those on the road!
Loved it too! Was going to recommend it
Posted by: Sandar | August 22, 2007 at 07:33 PM