Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson - One of the classic tomes of western individualism, this essay struck several chords with me while I was reading. Those of you who know me know that I am a "quote girl", so I'm just going to share a few from Emerson's essay that might inspire you, too:

• Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
• Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.
• Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.
• What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.
• Insist on yourself; never imitate.
• The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet.
• Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
• Nothing at last is sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne - This book has been on the NYT best seller list as well as the most popular lists at Barnes and Noble and Borders. It's been on my shelf for a while as I just didn't know about whether or not it was worth the time. On that note, I decided to pick it up and see for myself what all the hype is about.

Here's the thing...I think this book has A LOT of good ideas about "The Secret", which is essentially that in order to have what you want in life you must attract it to you through your thoughts and feelings. I was able to glean plenty of good thoughts from the text. Here are a few examples of things I took to heart during my reading:

• "It is impossible to bring more into your life if you are feeling ungrateful about what you have."
• "The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
• When you do not treat yourself the way you want others to treat you, you can never change the way things are.
• "What you resist persists." ~Carl Jung

That said, I still have some issues with this popular book. The first and biggest is that The Universe is credited for being the supreme guiding force in what does or does not come back to you in life. As I was reading, I started inserting God. I believe in divine intervention so it was hard for me to not take the omission of God to heart. As an example:

• "You are God in a physical body." (uh, no...I am not)
• "All power is from within and therefore under our control (again, not in my world)

Generally, this book did have some valuable things to offer, but only if you're able to take the good and leave the bad. I wouldn't recommend it to a student who isn't able to do that.

A few quotes from books I've recently read to help fill all that empty space between books....

"Literature is no one's private ground, literature is common ground; let us trespass freely and fearlessly." - Virginia Woolf

"A true friend will stab you in the front." - Oscar Wilde

"Cruelty is only the passing on of a wound from one person to another." - The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole

"A journey may be long or short, but it must start at the very spot one finds oneself."

"It is a wealthy person indeed who calculates riches not in gold but in friends."