I once had this incredibly bright, borderline insane Jehovah’s Witness/model/recovering bulemic roommate who was, unsurprisingly, really into self-help books. (She was also really into old men, but that’s a different blog post.) On her recommendation, I tried to read Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, about Gilbert’s year-long attempt to plug back into herself by traveling to Italy, and India, Indonesia. I never finished the book—my own brand of grumpiness is still way more teen angst than midlife crisis, and overall I felt too stable to relate to Gilbert’s unhappiness (like how I could probably stand to drop a few pounds, but I’m still too skinny to get a membership at Curves). But, lots of people like it. So in line with the sort of gross, unasked-for trend of women writing about their experiences with self help books (see: Helping Me Help Myself), here’s a post on Jezebel about a young Brooklyn-based writer who tried to follow Gilbert’s round-the-world path, only to find that it didn’t lead to transcendence (or a book deal…) after all:

This is Holly Corbett, photographed here for yesterday’s Page Six Magazine. She read the book Eat, Pray Love — and it ruined her life! After Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestseller about soothing her malaise in Italy, Indonesia and India inspired Holly to take a year off, she bought a round-the-world ticket — and came back to “depression, a breakup, and $10,000 of debt.” You mean a bestselling Oprah-endorsed self-help regimen didn’t save her life? Amazingly, claims the title: “My year-long trip changed my life — FOR THE WORSE.” How could it be?

This chick also has a blog called Watch Me Turn 30. Yuck. Sometimes I think about moving to New York, but I’m afraid I might turn into one of Those People. Thanks to Bookslut for the link.