Tuesday Book Club
I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, and I loved it.
Julia Cameron’s latest book, The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size.
Why did I think I wouldn’t like it? I’ve loved all her creativity books, beginning with The Artist’s Way, which completely transformed my life as a writer. In fact, it made me a writer. So why not let her walk me through a different method of weight loss?
Maybe because I’m burnt out on books like that, maybe because . . . all sorts of deep, dark weight loss issues. But in any case, I’m grateful that one of my blog pals wrote me off-blog and asked if I’d gotten it yet, which prompted me to order it right then. So glad I did.
What I like about Julia’s approach is it’s so entirely sane. And normal. And doable. It’s not weird and trendy, it doesn’t depend on any strange food combinations or other obsessive behaviors. It’s just about choosing to write to yourself every time you feel like snacking. And bingeing. And otherwise doing the same thing you always do, ending in the same result.
What really got to me were the stories of other people in her creativity classes who tried this method and found themselves cured of some lifelong food addictions–maybe because I share those addictions. They talked about their food hangovers and that foggy-headedness that comes after a sugar binge–sensations I know too well. And little by little they wrote themselves out of those seemingly bottomless pits of food abuse. Really fascinating stuff.
Skeptical at first, and now a week later, a total believer. I don’t want to describe her book any more than I have, because you really need to come into it fresh. But trust me, if food and weight are issues for you, this really is a book that can change your whole perspective and fix you once and for all–without sending you to the Diet Hell many of us know too well. Try it. You like.
So that’s my story for the week. What have you guys read?
Technorati Tags: Tuesday Book Club, Reading Clubs, Book Clubs, 50-Book Challenge, Reading, Books, Julia Cameron, The Writing Diet
February 12th, 2008 at 5:43 am
I’m reading a full MS that is out on submission. Good stuff.
February 12th, 2008 at 7:39 am
I’ll try it! “The Artist’s Way” resonated with me, many years ago.
I’m immersed in food books–reading “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan, and listening to “Mindless Eating” by Brian Wansink. After this, I’ll have to veer off and try some actual fiction for a change!
February 12th, 2008 at 7:52 am
I read Skinny Bitch: A No-Nonsense Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin…still eating crap. I don’t want to be a vegan.
Also Touching Snow by Sindy Felin. This was a YA NBA finalist…for some reason.
February 12th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Crashing Paradise, the fourth book of The Menagerie by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski - a FANTASTIC series you should all read! It has characters from literature, mythology, and legend.
February 12th, 2008 at 8:38 am
I finished reading For A Few Demons More and am still in the midst of a few others like The Monsters of Templeton and The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. Oh,and thanks to Booksfree,I’ll be getting a copy of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer soon(to read along with The Host)so I can see what the fuss is about:)
February 12th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Veganism is sooo hard, which is why I’m vegetarian. But Skinny Bitch did scare me off of most dairy. When I do feel like I have to have it, I make sure it’s organic. I don’t like ingesting (second hand) growth hormones and antibiotics.
SB is a harsh book, IMO.
February 12th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Hey Robin: Great to see what everyone is reading. Lots of food books here.
I don’t know what I’m reading right now outside of kids books, Russian stories from the 1920s and 1930s (class), and Nabokov (other class), but I went out of the box for my listening choice this week. I’m listening to Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson. I didn’t want to read it because it’s about Vietnam (sigh). But enough good reviews and no other inspiration at the moment made me give it a try. I’m glad I did. In the end it’s a story. About people. And a good one.
February 12th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I am glad that book is working for you! Julia was a great speaker and had some amazing stories to go along with the book. That is on my need-to-read list.
I am still reading The Softwire again. Got to get reading for book two.
February 12th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I finished Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. Great book.
I’m up to page 29 in a book by someone I know where the protagonist and her science buddy are studying a potato. I’m bummed because my kids are going to be home in about a half hour and I need to find out what the protagonist did. All these little clues, here and there, making me nibble and follow along. Really, really good stuff.
February 12th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Sounds like a good book! ^_^ I finished sweep book 5 and am moving on the book 6 tonight! hehe It was really so good a little slower then the others but we (the readers) needed a little break though I was so used to the spead I wanted it a little faster but oh well. The ending was SOOOOOO satisfying! I LOVE it lol I need the next one! O_O XD Also I got to add it to my shelfaryi *read* list! ^^ BTW, no one ever answered me if they had a shelfari…
February 12th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I’m late this week, and I actually had a book finished before Tuesday! I finally turned the last page of Rebel Angels, which was another volume of incredible storytelling and characters real enough to touch. I love Gemma’s first-person, present-tense voice. Coupled with the book’s 19th-century setting, which might have been stuffy, it makes her and her world seem so believable. Of course I love the fantasy elements, but it’s the girls’ relationships that strike me most. Katie Sis had better be reading the Sweet Far Thing so she can hand it off to me this weekend!!!
February 12th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Meant to say that as soon as I finished the book I enjoyed the short question-and-answer interview with Libba Bray tacked onto the end. She is freaking hysterical! Love her.
February 13th, 2008 at 2:20 am
That book does sound interesting - I loved The Artist’s Way even though I’m not an artist of any kind.
This week I read Emma Bull’s Territory, which was fantastic. I can’t think of many other writers who could have got me interested in the Old West and I’d terrible trouble at first sorting out all the Earp brothers, friends and foes (despite having lived in Tuscon!). But the characters are wonderful, of course, and I loved the way she did the magic, so it won me over totally.
On the other hand, and here’s where I may end up being un-invited to your blog and the rest of the kidlitosphere! - I also listened to the audiobook version of Austenland, which I didn’t like much. Trying to get up the brain power/energy to write about it sensibly on LJ, but still having too much trouble with the headaches to do it.
Now reading Jaclyn Moriarty’s The Spell Book of Listen Taylor, which is odd but fun, as many others have said.
February 13th, 2008 at 8:22 am
This is so interesting to me, Robin, after our exchange at my blog a few days ago. The whole body image voodoo that seems to just happen to women in our culture. Even the smart ‘n healthy ones. Right? So, I am so worried about perpetuating this that when I see a book like Cameron’s latest, I recoil for a good few minutes. Or, okay, forever. Because I’m wanting to push the whole freaking topic under the bed. Which I’m pretty sure a shrink would say is NOT a good idea. So. No more under the bed. Food and body are not only unavoidable parts of life, but beautiful, delicious, sensuous parts of life. And if Cameron’s figured out a way to keep it sane, good on ‘er. Good on you, too…
February 13th, 2008 at 9:57 am
I just finished reading “The Looking Glass Wars” and “Seeing Redd”, both by Frank Beddor. I enjoyed LGW more than SR but the students in book club (6th - 8th graders) were the exact opposite! I will say that all of us are waiting impatiently for book 3!
February 14th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Thanks for all the lists and reviews, everybody! I really love to hear what you all think about what you’re seeing.
Lady S, you can still be my friend even if you didn’t love Austenland. Although you’re so clearly wrong.
Liz, I know what you mean–the obsession is tiresome sometimes. But it’s there. And if I see something that I think deals with it better than flaky, psycho diets, I’m happy to tell people about it. But yeah, as per your post on this, it would be nice if body image wasn’t even an issue. On another planet . . .
Everybody else, I’d love to chat more, but I only have a few minutes here before the hammering and drilling begins again. One day things will be back to normal.