#19 Completed, Still Working on #30

Oh, my poor little 101 List.

I haven't forgotten it. I just haven't been inspired to do much on it this summer.

That's terrible. A whole season has passed, and I've basically accomplished nothing. All of those summer days when I could have been planning a trip to TO, or being a tourist in Ottawa, or for God's sake at least carving my name in a damned tree!!

But nope. Nothing. Nothing but books and movies. I do believe this is a sign that my life is in a bit of a rut. A book and movie RUT, I tell you.

The good news is that I finished #19 - Read 10 Books in One Year. (In August. Ooooooo, atta challenge yourself, Jill.)

The bad news is that this blog will probably be even more neglected than it already is now that I won't have any book reviews to write. eeeep.

The book that checked in at #10 was Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love.



I was reading it for my book club, and as it turns out, I was one of the few who actually really enjoyed it. The funny thing is that I purchased the book from Amazon a long time ago, and when it arrived, I was surprised at how BIG the book was. Huge. MASSIVE. I was intimidated by it. I told everyone I knew would be reading it for book club to get it early, because it was going to take a looooong time to read it.

Turns out, once I finally flipped it open to get started on it, I discovered I had accidentally purchased the LARGE PRINT EDITION. So yes, it was big, huge, MASSIVE - but there were, like, 10 words on a page. I giggled to myself as I thought of the few people I talked to who had already read it that probably wondered why I was complaining about how long I thought the book would be. I imagine they were thinking, And this girl says she's a reader? And she's scared of the size of Eat Pray Love? What does she read, RL Stine books?

In fact, I loved the way Eat Pray Love was broken down, into 109 small chapters that, for me, just flew by. That's the nice part about a LARGE PRINT EDITION book. You can whiz through those millions of pages very quickly. And I felt a connection to Gilbert's first-person account of her real-life adventures. No, I don't think I could ever just drop everything and leave for a whole year, but I envied her ability to do so. I think it would be something I could really enjoy, if I had the balls to actually do it.

The book is broken into three parts, based on the three places she traveled to: Italy, where she ate; India, where she prayed; and Indonesia, where she finally found the ability to love again. It was her own spiritual journey, her effort to mend her broken life, and I admired her for it. I loved reading about all the people she met, the little situations she found herself in during the year-long adventure. A few people I talked to felt they struggled, especially through the section on India, but I was fascinated by her experience at the Ashram, and felt intrigued by the idea of meditation and Yoga. I'm interested in trying both.

So yes, I really did love Eat Pray Love, even though several people at our book club disliked it and didn't even finish reading it. I was glad I read it, and it has stuck with me since then.

There you have it. The very last book review. I'm sure you're all sick of me talking about books by now.

So let's move on to movies. I hardly ever talk about them. (ha!)

I got two more letters checked off for #30 - Watch 26 movies I've never seen before starting with each letter of the alphabet.

First, I watched my "T" movie in August, and it was one I'd been wanting to see for a while: The Town, starring Ben Affleck.



So.good. Suspenseful, thrilling a little scary, and....well...Ben Affleck is in it. And I love Ben Affleck.




It tells the story of a group of friends from a neighbourhood in Boston called Charlestown who grow up to be robbers, but in the midst of a bank heist, Affleck's character, Doug, takes a liking for their hostage, Claire, and begins a relationship with her shortly after. She has no idea that her new boyfriend is one of the masked men who caused her so much terror.

I also got the "M" movie checked off when I saw Morning Glory, which features such a fun cast, including Rachel McAdams, Diane Keaton, and Harrison Ford.



I didn't have high expectations for this movie - in fact, I thought the previews for it looked kinda boring - but I really enjoyed it. McAdams plays Becky, an upstart workaholic TV producer who gets her big break by getting the chance to right the failing morning show "Daybreak". Her biggest challenge is convincing legendary newscaster Mike Pomeroy (Ford) to join Collen Peck (delightfully played by Keaton) as co-host of the program. The story follows the rise to success of Becky's show and her handling of its temperamental stars, while she also tries to juggle a new relationship with her hottie colleague, Adam (played by Patrick Wilson).

I really recommend both of these movies - both are worth it!!

So I know I've said this before, but I'm really going to try to get more knocked off the list in the coming weeks. Otherwise, there's no way I'll ever get most of it accomplished by the end of the 1001 days!!