Eat, Pray, Love
One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
by Elizabeth Gilbert · first published 2001
100% neutral
This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and
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I just finished reading “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear” by Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat, Pray, Love fame) and she brought up a related and interesting idea I can paraphrase: In midlife we’re concerned with status and our outward appearance, which can hinder creative output. Then we get older and realize…
on “The demographic and cultural roots of the midlife crisis” ↗Excellent points. Elizabeth Gilbert gave a great talk at TED on these topics: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html (warning: auto-play video) Don't be put off that she's the "Eat Pray Love" author if that's not your style (it's definitely not mine). She speaks very well to the creation process - and even touches on topics like depression and suicide among creators. It's well worth the watch.…
on “How to work remotely as a software developer” ↗…the same thoughts. What ever that majority thought might be- that word is the word of the city. And if your personal word does not match the word of the city, then you don't really belong there." - _Eat Pray Love_, Elizabeth Gilbert.
on “Cities and Ambition (2008)” ↗The charity Turning the Page runs Carpe Librum pop-up used bookstores in Washington, DC. When one opened downtown some years ago, I walked in and saw 30+ (I counted) copies of Eat, Pray, Love on the discount shelves.
on “Forgotten Best Sellers” ↗…Ultimately, intellectually unsatisfying to me. However, there are books out there, soul-wrenching books that explore the human condition. The condition that cannot be defined in simple terms of good, bad. Where Eat, Pray, Love doesn't end happily.
on ““A book is a sneeze”” ↗That is one of the best TED talks I've ever watched, and I've seen it many times. I read her book, "Eat Pray Love" and googled her, when I came across the TED video. If anyone reading this hasn't watched the video yet, please do.
on “Sprezzatura” ↗…In the economics of books, the big money is fiction. (50 Shades, Harry Potter, etc). To a lesser extent, you have some non-fiction titles making a decent amount of money (Chicken Soup for the Soul, Eat Pray Love, etc). Way down on the totem pole are the trade publications like computer books. The economics on that level basically dictate that you slave away writing "Java for Dummies" for less than minimum wage.…
on “Haskell Web Development: A Freely Available Book” ↗…people feel good does not make it art/literature," where you're discussing something else, which is "making people feel good makes it not art/literature". The original comment was something like, "Perhaps Eat Pray Love made people's lives better, but making peoples lives better does not make it art/literature."
…mention that the only reason this "review bombing" is painted as bad is because it convinces people. This is yet another case of (calling for) censoring speech because it is convincing. It convinced the Eat, Pray, Love author not to publish at all.
on “Goodreads was the future of book reviews. Then Amazon bought it” ↗…everything is already available "for free", the best place to spend your budget for creative work is in works that don't already exist, making crowdsourcing a much more popular and rewarding option (I can get Eat Pray Love for free, but adverblessly's book is priceless since it will only exist if they get this money). > In this world, who would still spend time on publishing books? If we're talking about online publishing,…
on “EU lawmakers take first steps toward tougher AI rules” ↗