Committed

No not me to an psychiatric ward, although there are days that I would happily go there. That would be upgrading my desire to crawl under my desk with a bottle of booze to bouncing around a rubber room with lots of good drugs. Not a bad idea.
Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage is Elizabeth Gilbert's new bestseller after her Eat, Pray, Love climbed the charts and optioned into a film starring Julia Roberts. I kicked off my book club in February at the library with her first title. It seemed like a suitable title for February and since it will be a movie soon, I wanted to offer it before the request list gets a mile long. Movies generate request lists. I try to push books that are coming out as movies but not on the general public radar as--Oh, I should read this.
When I initially read Eat, Pray, Love about 2 years ago, was it really that long ago? Eat, Pray, Love was a difficult read for me. Not because it was poorly written or that I didn't think that her story was a good one to tell, but because it hit too close to home. It seemed that every single flaw in her personality that she pointed out was one that I could identify with. It isn't easy reading an expose of yourself via someone else's life. I struggled through the book and in retrospect, I didn't think it was the best travelogue that I had ever read but it was the best book about me that I had ever read.


For several months Committed stared me in the face every time I went down the book aisle at Sam's Club, enticing me with the question--could this one also be about you? After the book club last month I decided to go ahead and buy the title. So I purchased it and Committed first road around in my front seat for about 2 weeks, and then sat on my desk for the next two weeks. Finally, I picked it up a few days ago because book club is tomorrow night and I wanted to give them some feedback on the new title.
Yep, she pretty much nailed me on the head again. Not that I have ever been divorced. The book is once again pretty good. I didn't find it painful to read this a time because obviously I am not in a position to get married. But for a long time now I have realized that I have a definite fear of commitment and that women with a fear of commitment act very differently from men with that fear. In a sense, Gilbert explored all those thoughts I have had kicking around in my head about marriage and relationships and why I am terrified of being trapped in one despite the contradictory urge to go out and get into one. Gilbert spent hours and hours finding the answer to all my questions. How nifty is that? I wonder which of our neuroses she will explore next? Can't wait.