Book 'em, Dano

I started reading Eat, Pray, Love on the way to NYC (in large part because I know the movie is in the works and I wasn't about hear all about it without having read the book) and was absolutely gripped. Trouble is, if I sit down long enough to read after work, I end up just falling asleep instead, so reading time has pretty much been limited to lunch hours and weekends. I finally finished EPL during my lunch hour last Friday, and as soon as I put it down I wanted more. Traditionally I'm more of a fiction person (though I can recommend the one other memoir I've read with considerable zeal) but something about EPL made me desperate for real life drama, so I hit up Amazon.com on Saturday morning for some suggestions.

After amassing a sizable list, I spent the better part of two hours seeking out what Amazon had recommended at Half Price Books. While I didn't find everything I was looking for, what I did come away with was nothing short of splendid:

Up until very recently, my experience in this world has pretty much been rainbows, sunshine, and strawberry unicorn farts. (Blissful unawareness is delicious, by the way. I highly recommend it and am heartbroken to feel it slipping away.) Now that my rose-colored glasses have finally been forcibly removed from my face, my delicate eyes have started to pick up on some of life's harshest realities. One of the most painful realizations has been this one: the world is full of wounded and failed marriages. If a couple isn't divorced, there's a pretty decent chance that they don't like each other all that much. (Just typing that sentence made me want to throw up.) In an effort to understand why marriages break and to (hopefully) prevent mine from ever doing so, I picked up a couple of books on the subject:

• Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts came highly recommended from one of my engaged friends. I've only read one chapter so far, but it was so insightful and interesting that I'm ready to buy the his and hers workbooks that are supposed to accompany it. 
• Committed is (I think) actually a bit more about divorce with some history and customs of marriage sprinkled in for good measure, but it's the follow-up to Eat, Pray, Love, so I couldn't resist.

When I was a happy undergrad, I was required to take two linguistics courses: Intro to Linguistics and a linguistics elective (I chose History of English because it was the only one that worked with my schedule. Language and Culture was actually my first choice.) Unlike most English majors who were unwitting participants in the classes, I thoroughly enjoyed them. (Language + history + psychology + culture = duh.) I purchased a couple of linguistics related books because they sounded nerdily indulgent and like something I might consider getting a Masters (and yes, Virginia, very likely a Ph.D as well) in someday ASAP, God willing:

• The Power of Babel is about how all the world's languages evolved (Not "evolved," that would suggest improvement. I believe "transitioned" is the word the author uses. Linguists are terribly sensitive about calling one language or language form better than another, dontcha know?) from one single ancient source thousands of years ago. 
• Expletive Deleted is about swear words--where they come from, why we have them, why other cultures don't--and I must admit that it sounds a little more interesting than The Power of Babel. (History is nice, but sociology is off the hizzook!)

The only trick now is going to be finding time to read all of these + the thirty or so others that are already collecting dust on my bookshelf. Unfortunately, we've all had a taste of Sarah's big girl time management skills, and we all know that the flavors just ain't there yet.