A few years ago I read an entire book before realizing I had already read it. I looked back at my Goodreads read list and realized I had no memory of about half of the books on there. So I built a new habit – (almost) every time I finish a book, I word-vomit my thoughts and emotions into a note on my phone. Sometimes they’re brief, sometimes they’re long-longwinded, sometimes they just ramble…and now I’m putting them here. Please enjoy the madness.
This book made me want to explore and read and explore some more. And it also made me feel like I don’t think deep enough thoughts. I have this so marked up with post it notes at this point. I loved her thoughts and language around loneliness and suicide and being understood, especially when she talks about the fact that it’s not usually a rosy, eat pray, love situation that you need when you feel broken. Usually you need to see someone else broken, a sort of “yeah, we see you, me too” moment. Her thoughts on the way we paint the wives of great men without really thinking about what it would be like to live their lives was fascinating. I just think the whole book is full of gems. I think she did a great of job of tilting the whole “traveling to find myself” thing (which seems to be exploding these days) and made it feel substantive again. And authentic. Less like some overprivileged, millennial just fucking off to nowhere in the name of “Adventure”.