my baby loves a bunch of authors

i like to go out dancing, my baby loves a bunch of authors
we've been living in hovels, spending all our money on... brand new novels.

blogs are the ultimate indulgence in self absorption, aren't they? i'm going to take this opportunity to acknowledge that it's very possible that NO ONE CARES what i have been reading lately. but i have been gorging on some really great reads, and i want to share.

that, plus i really really love that song and i have been itching to use it in the blog...

ok, so, for one thing, i have discovered a new blog that is delciously relevant to the proported 'focus' of this blog of late (the optimism experiment) and i want you all to check it out:
www.happiness-project.com. the blog is written by Gretchen Rubin and here is her description of the project:

I'm working on a book, THE HAPPINESS PROJECT--a memoir about the year I spent test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study I could find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will gather these rules for living and report on what works and what doesn’t. On this daily blog, I recount some of my adventures and insights as I grapple with the challenge of being happier.

it's not as pretty of a website as i would like it to be (not that i can talk) but it does have zillions and zillions of research/experiment-style tips and articles about HOW TO BE HAPPIER. check it out.

next, i just want to have an oprah moment here myself and extol the virtues of an engaging and world-famous little book called 'eat pray love'. now, i know i already mentioned this book in a previous post. and i know that it's a best seller and that her 'all paths lead to the same god' mantra isn't wholly biblical (while at the same time not wholly discountable), but my stars, this book is a delight to read. it's broken down into 'fun pack' sized little chapters and it is a bit like meditation to enter into the stories and let yourself mull over her journey of discovery and spiritual development. i find it to be be well written, encouraging, insightful, and funny. i know, i know, it's sort of cliche. don't come over to my house and hit me over the head with a brick if you thought this book was contrived or over-hyped or silly or whatever. i like it. there. i said it. and it's helping me, i think, reconsider what it means for me to 'find my path' in a way that might be pretty different from what i keep thinking i want. and as cliche as that may be, it's nudging me into some much more peaceful space about my life and keeps pointing me back up to God in a way that is both simple and obvious. so there. read it. tell me what you think.

since my every-swirling brain cannot focus on any one thing at a time, i'm also cracking the spine of a couple of other excellent books. i save 'eat pray love' to savor on the train. it's small and light and perfect for bite-sized and oft-interrupted commute reading. at home on the sun porch, i'm reading 'the omnivore's dilemma'. whoa. so so so good. wondering if perhaps this book will help me on my path to recovery from my life-long disordered eating. (don't freak out, i don't have an eating disorder. at least not actively. but i do have a particularly demented mental framework about food and eating and i'm trying to work through it and be healthy). this book is actually an excellent companion to 'eat pray love', in a weird and marvelous way. i love it when things collide like that unexpectedly.

i just finished "we" and "she" by robert a. johnson. books lent to me by ivan in fact. they are about the collective psychology of romantic love. johnson also wrote a book called "he", but i don't really want to read it. these other two, though, challenging and excellent. he uses myth and jungian psychology and experiential/historic observation to outline the development and fracture of western society's replacement of the adoration of the divine and spiritual devotion with the worship of romance and passion. fascinating stuff. especially if you've ever felt like your husband/boy friend wants you to be both goddess and house frau at the same time and seems inconsolably put out to realize that you are neither.

and my lovely friend R forwarded me this article about how happiness is contagious. here's the gist: New research shows that happiness isn’t just an individual phenomenon; we can catch happiness from friends and family members like an emotional virus. When just one person in a group becomes happy, researchers were able to measure a three-degree spread of that person’s cheer. In other words, our moods can brighten thanks to someone we haven’t even met.

so yet more research to add to the optimism experiment! really, i'm just working on happy and optimistic for all of YOU. it's a public service, really. happy viral germs, spreading and spreading. so maybe if i stop sulking and grasping onto the bleak, all y'all will experience a bit of a boost as well. ok, well, HAPPY reading!