Eat. Pray. Love. Denied?

I have a rule about books. If I don't like the book, I do not force myself to read it. I never get why people make themselves hunker down to finish a book that doesn't inspire them to read the next page. Why? There are only so many free hours in our days, particularly as we get older and become bogged down my more and more commitments and obligations that steal away our time. The only time I may force myself into a book is if it's a book for a class (erhm, college) or I'm absolutely certain it's going to get better because SO many peopel have told me it's good (I'm thinking Angela's Ashes which, quite frankly, is a masterpiece and if you haven't you must go and read it RIGHT NOW).

So when I started reading Eat. Pray. Love. I was utterly disappointed at my complete disinterest in the novel. Let me also say that my favorite book to read is one of the travel autobiography genre and I have read a LOT of them. More often than not they are mediocre but still readable. This book, however didn't do it for me. I didn't get very far into it because I simply couldn't relate to the character - there was something about her sense of entitlement that irritated and alienated me to her. She's selfish in a way I could not relate to. Her narcissism made my skin crawl and, being an avid reader of various blogs, I'm pretty used to narcisissm in writtten form. I couldn't get the character, which was completely disappointing because 1) I'm a woman, like her 2) I like to read and write about traveling and most importantly 3) I'm a traveler. The fact that I was unable to connect with this woman on that, the deepest level of my existence as the Traveler I see myself as - that I could not relate to her as a traveler, bothered me the most.

So I stopped reading it. Just like that. And now, several years later, the movie is coming out and I think I might. just. see. it.

Maybe I've changed, maybe the movie will be different or maybe it'll all just be crap anyway, but I'm drawn to the trailer and I think I might give it a shot. So here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZzmqHJ0gPU

"I used to have this appetite for my life and it is just gone. I want to go someplace where I can just marvel at something."