However, I do tend to diverge from that genre every once in a while, and buy self-help books. When we were in the thick of our infertility treatments, I bought at least three books from our local Christian book store to help me deal with it on a spiritual level. I even bought a couple of books from our fellow IFers.
If you were paying close attention when you read the paragraph above, you saw that I said I "buy" self-help books. That's right, I buy them, but rarely read them. I began to read Navigating the Land of IF, but stopped after the first couple of chapters. Never even cracked the second book, or any of the spiritual books. The only self-help book I pretty much read in its entirety was Infertility for Dummies, but that was only so I could become familiar with the ins and outs of fertility treatments. Not so that I could get the feely-feely out of it.
I guess that is why I really don't enjoy the self-help books. I am not into experiencing the feelings of someone I do not know. We all have our own ways of reacting to what happens to us. I don't want someone else's feelings to be projected on me - making me think that that is how I should react. Or make me feel bad if I don't react how they did. I want to know the technical aspects of a topic (such as fertility or even weight loss surgery).
Now you may ask why I read other's blogs then? Because it's in these blogs where I connect with people who are going through what I'm going through. This is where I get and give the emotional support that we each need. To me, this is more real than what I can read in a book, written by someone that I don't know (even if the author is one of us - but I still don't know her). I think the inability to interact with the author of the book I am reading is part of the reason I don't like the self-help books.
All of this is said so that I can talk about the book I bought today. It's a WLS book that contains recipes of healthy and band-friendly meals. I had several options to choose from, but decided that this one would fit the bill of what I was looking for. Why? Because it doesn't go too much into the author's personal journey, but rather gives practical and easy recipes to use post weight loss surgery.
I'm looking forward to getting it on Friday so I can get to the store and stock my shelves with all the ingredients it suggests. This book provides recipes that can not only be enjoyed by me, but by those who are eating with me (such as Hubby and any guests we may have over for dinner). I'll let you know how it is. If I come across any recipes that are absolutely fabulous, I'll be sure to share them with you! By the way, I bought this on Barnes & Noble's website.
