“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go” Dr. Seuss

As grade age students, we are all encouraged to read. Then we hit puberty and think we have more important things to do other than reading a book. Like so many others, I was a book worm in elementary school but honestly can’t recall a single time I picked up a book for recreational reading in middle school. In high school, I was force fed the grade level English curriculum. It required me to read novels and I did what was necessary to complete the requirements and nothing more. Between sixth grade and my junior year of college, I never read a book unless it was essential to me earning an excellent grade in class. My junior year of college a professor recommended we read three books for recreation. I thought it was the craziest suggestion an adult could ever make to another adult. Did this lady not understand I was there to earn a degree and not read a book because she thought it was a good idea? She would remind us every week to grab the three books The Bridges of Madison County, Brothers and Sisters and Sisters and Lovers.

A year after completing the class, I found myself passing a bookstore and two of the books were on the shelf outside the store. For some odd reason I could still remember the name of all three books. Since I could recall the names of each of the books and two of the three were sitting outside of the bookstore, I figured I was supposed to read these books at some point in my life and I had gotten to that point. I ended up purchasing all three books and I must admit, I thoroughly enjoyed each one of them. From that point on I couldn’t resist buying a good book to read and shortly after falling in love once again with reading I found the book Will the Real Women Please Stand Up by Ella Patterson.

I consider this book to be a “women’s bible” to enhance appropriate social interactions, relationships, etiquette and personal appearance. Ella Patterson discusses physical fitness, how to own your sexuality and even how to turn a man on without turning him away. As stated in Want to Get Away?, this book is the very reason I refuse to walk around with broken nails and chipped nail polish. The author gave me a true awareness of self. Using this book, I self assessed who I was and I’ve continued to use it to have a full understanding of who I want to become. While this is not a goal setting book. there are tips to get you recognized as soon as you walk into a room be it for a job interview or date.

Will the Real Women Please Stand Up is a book I read every year. While I don’t read it chapter for chapter, I do focus on areas I can refine and I refer back to it for the sake of doing “touch-ups”. This book was a life saver in my younger adult years. There were so many subjects I would have never thought to approach that I became totally comfortable with. I was truly able to embrace who I was as a woman because of this book and the professor that unknowingly gave me the passion to read again.