Book Review: “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert

Cover via Amazon

I have just finished reading “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert, and if I’m honest, it’s not the type of book i would normally read, but as it has recently received a lot of air-time due to the film version being released (starring that well-known actress Julia Roberts), I decided to have a look at the book that inspired the film.

It did seem like it was going to be another book full of rants about men and relationship problems and to be fair, it is a bit, but the feelings expressed seem genuine and I certainly felt I could relate to Liz’s misery.

She travels to three countries in her mission to get over the nasty breakup of her marriage and the following rebound fling, and ends up in Italy to “Eat”, India to “Pray”, and Bali to find “Love”. Quite an achievement that it all happens over the space of a year, but it is still a long unhappy year where her feelings seem to rule her life.

I’d say this book made me feel more positive about life after a breakup, and i totally agree that leaving your past behind you at home and visiting far-flung countries is a great way to forget about everything that has happened. However, I’m curious about what happens when she returns home and everything is normal and sucks you back into your old habits. It is easy enough to make yourself do new and exciting things when in new and exciting places, but eventually you have to go home and those new resolutions you made may not last so long once you’re back in that environment.

Ok, i’m digressing a little bit from the book here, so I’ll go back a step!

There are some genuinely great moments in the book (i won’t say here because i don’t want to spoil it if you havent read/finished it yet!), some great characters that we meet along the way, and there are some great quotes which can be taken from the book, but at the same time i kind of lost my interest around the India part of her journey. It is quite good in the respect that you get an insight into how the religion plays a large part in her life, but for those of us who aren’t really religious it can seem a little bit preachy.

I stuck it out and it does get better, with all the loose ends tied up at the end, although I have to say it ends rather abruptly.

Overall, it is a good book to read if you are going through a breakup as it describes a lot of the feelings a person can have during that difficult time, and I felt I was definitely taken on the journey with Liz as she pushes through the pain to get to the point where she feels ok with the world. The book certainly has an air of positivity about it, and despite feeling a little emotional at times while reading it, i don’t regret reading it at all!

I give it 7/10, as it is written fairly well and has good content and is realistic, but it’s not totally my cup of tea. But then, everyone has their own opinion!

Ebooks: Enter the Digital Revolution

As a publishing student, i find myself constantly debating with my peers over whether Digital is going to have the kind of impact on the publishing world as it did on the music world.

Ebooks are popping up all over the place now, but despite all the noise in the newspapers about how Ebooks are the next big thing, the concept hasn’t caught on just yet. When i questioned my friends about them, i wasn’t surprised that they aren’t willing to part with their traditional printed books yet, at least, not until the retail giants (like Amazon, Apple and so on) make a e-reader device which is affordable to the average person and which is a desirable product.

There is a constant argument over which is better: the traditional book, or the Ebook. Those fighting the Ebook’s corner say that it is one way of getting round the problem of taking a pile of books to read on holiday when you fly abroad, as all you need is an E-reader on which you can download as many books as you desire to take away with you, thus removing the added cost and stress of books taking up valuable luggage space.

Fair enough.

But for those printed book-lovers, the whole appeal of a book is being able to walk around a bookshop and look at the title and peek inside the cover, and then have the joy of taking it to the till to pay, and then diving into it as soon as you leave the shop. I can tell you, and i’m sure many will agree with me, nothing, i say NOTHING, beats the smell of a fresh new book (although old books can smell pretty great too!).

I personally can’t imagine losing such a wonderful piece of technology which has been around for what seems like forever! I don’t think the traditional book will give up without a fight!

One thing which makes me sad is that we have lost pretty much all of our national independant bookshops, with Waterstones being the only one left after Borders stopped trading recently. When i was younger, i loved nothing more than browsing through a library for books to read, and then when i started earning, i started browsing bookshops in my free time. Not much is better than losing yourself in a bookshop, looking for books. The best books are found through random browsing!

These days, the internet and supermarkets provide us with cheap books which are easily accessible, but somewhere along the line, someone is losing out on profit because these books are bought and sold so cheaply, mainly the poor author and the publishers forced to sell at low prices to make ends meet.

I have nothing against the conglomerates  and their cheap books, speaking as a poor student who is forced for financial reasons to buy cheaper products, but i have definitely found myself making an effort to buy more books from Waterstones recently! We need to ensure our little highstreet bookshops stay open and i urge anyone who loves books and bookshops to help support this!

Digital will indeed make everything much more easily accessible for those who need it, but until i can afford to buy an e-reader and ebooks i will be sticking to my beloved printed books!

Hello world!

Hello world, my name is bluecloverbelle and this is the start of my unique blog!

Hope you will join me on this journey!

xxx