a new earth

Okay, I love Oprah. I TiVo her show every day. I don't normally buy things from her FAVORITE THINGS list, nor do I tend to read books that she recommends. Because of the nature of my job, I receive hundreds of books from publishers a year and read those since I'm reviewing them for the shows that I produce. There isn't a lot of time left over for "pleasure reading."

But for some reason, I fell for it this time. I was walking down the aisle at Target (hear the angels singing?!?!? I always hear them when I walk through the doors of Target!), and there it was...an entire display of copies of A NEW EARTH. Right there in giant letters, "AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE." Well! I have felt that my life has been lacking in purpose as of late, so I picked up a copy and put it in my basket. It was a paperback, and only $11, after all, so what did I have to lose, really?

I brought the book home and started to read. I got about 5 pages in and realized that I didn't comprehend one thing that I had just read. So I went back and re-read the passages again. Nope. Still nothing. CHRIST! I must be in trouble! I must be in need of Eckhart Tolle if I can't even ABSORB what the guy is trying to say!

So I did what every Oprah devotee would do at this point. I immediately thought it must be "me" that was lacking in some sort of intelligence or understanding or vision. Because Oprah couldn't be steering me wrong. Right?!? I went to Oprah's website to check out the message boards to see if anyone else was having the problems that I was having. Sure enough...there it was. A post echoing my own words "Is Anyone Else Having Trouble Understanding This Book?" (Or something of that nature). So I clicked on the post hoping to find 400 people that were up against the same emotional roadblocks that I was feeling. Well, aside from the woman who posted the question - and maybe 2 or 3 others - it was a plethora of suggestions on "how to understand" what Tolle has to say. Yep, that's right. How to understand what you're reading.

Now I don't know about you, but if I need someone to tell me "how" to read a book, I don't think it's a book worth reading. The suggestions didn't stop there. "Let the words flow through you!" "Don't TRY to understand it, just let it understand YOU!" WHAT?!?!? Who are these people? What Kool-Aid did they drink to get to this point?

So, angry, I posted an entry of my own. I pointed out that I don't think that this book is well-written, I don't think the guy is a guru, I am a bit concerned that everyone is blindly following someone because Oprah tells them to! Again, I LOVE OPRAH! But that doesn't mean that just because she says something is so, that it IS THAT WAY!

I have laid my book at my bedside and might try to pick it up again one day when I am feeling more "enlightened." Meanwhile, I will be reading CELEBUTANTES by Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Hopper. I'll let the Botox enlighten me.

Anyone else having problems reading Tolle's book?? If so, please leave me a comment here!