Books

I love to read.  I always have.  When I was 9 years old, I would check out at least five or six books at a time.  I remember the librarian making a comment to me once, impressed with how much I read.  Oh those were the days of The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High series.  My love for reading has only continued to grow as I've gotten older.  Nowadays my favorites are chick lit and self-growth & inspirational types.  I've even ventured into the occasional biography and historical fiction book which was surprisingly fascinating.  Recent reads:

-Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert: She is the author of Eat, Pray, Love, which I absolutely LOVED.  Her writing style really appeals to me.  Her story in Eat, Pray, Love was relateable for me on so many different levels.  I was excited for her book following Eat, Pray, Love---Committed.  I never got around to purchasing it and eventually I heard people say it wasn't as good as Eat, Pray, Love.  Since I loved that one so much, I was hesitant on reading Committed at all, for fear of being disappointed.  A few weeks ago after browsing the bookstore forever and not finding anything that looked interesting enough (and not finding an Audrey bio :( hint to mom for xmas ;-) ), I decided to just cave in and buy it.  I was captivated from page 1 and on, finishing it in less than a week.  I completely understand why people didn't like it as much as E,P,L.  E,P,L is more of a story and Committed is more informational. 

Committed is about marriage.  Elizabeth has to marry her Brazilian bf for him to be able to stay in the US with her.  They originally had taken vows to never get married, as they had both gone through horrible divorces.  To find peace with marriage, Elizabeth takes a journey learning about the history of marriage, marriage across different cultures, and present day marriage.  Being a 28 year old single gal, you could imagine I may or may not have thought about the topic once or twice at this point in my life. :-P  Needless to say, I was engrossed. 

-Think Big and Kick Ass by Donald Trump and Bill Zanker:  Two chapters in and I'm inspired and motivated to kick some ass on my next venture! :)  Some great lessons from the first couple chapters:

• Dream Big.
• One very important quality common among the hundreds of super successful people that Bill Zanker has observed--persistance.  Never quitting and never taking no for an answer.
• Learn to trust your gut (Woohoo, I do this often! :-P)
• You have to love what you do or you are never going to be successful.  Passion is more important than brains or talent.  Some of the smartest people fail because lack of passion.
• Another key to success is how well you deal with pressure.
• If you want to be successful, you can never, ever give up.
• You have to get out of your comfort zone to achieve greater and greater accomplishments.
• After you discover what you love doing, you have to take action.  Get involved with what you love doing at whatever level you can.

What good book have you read lately?