Committed to Elizabeth Gilbert

When I was little, I wanted to be just like Lois Lane from The New Adventures of Superman when I grew up, so I studied journalism and became a newspaper reporter. Well, being a newspaper reporter isn't really so much fun in real life. Teri Hatcher moved on to be a character I don't have any interest in mimicking on Desperate Housewives. And I needed a new strong, funny writer to look up to. Enter Elizabeth Gilbert.

I want to be Elizabeth Gilbert. Who doesn't? She's smart, witty, funny, wrote a wildly successful memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, and she even got to meet Oprah! (I don't know much about her fashion sense and I'm annoyed as heck that I can't seem to find her active Twitter account. But that doesn't change the fact that if I could have dinner with any person alive I'd choose her.)

So when her new book, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage, came out I bought the hard cover, which is something I NEVER do. After Eat, Pray, Love, the woman could've titled her book Big Pile of Poo and I still would've bought the hardcover--and I'd venture to guess thousands of other women yogis would have too. I digress.

So it pains me to say that while there are many things about Committed that I liked, it was missing some of the personality and charisma of Eat, Pray, Love. I learned much by the thorough discussion on marriage in the Western world, and it definitely left me thinking about my own ideas about marriage and my relationship. While there were a few funny personal narratives, most of the book I just kept feeling like I had been magically telleported back to my college days and was reading a text book from a Women's Lit class.

My assessment: Gilbert found herself (and found love) while she was writing Eat, Pray, Love.. and that just happens to be loads more entertaining than a story about the happily ever after. But that just makes me want to invite her to be my dinner guest even more so I can learn her secrets.

Did you read it? What did you think?