eat, pray, love SHOP

Lynne Ronon was living in Hong Kong about four years ago when friends started giving her copies of the book "Eat, Pray, Love."

It made sense. There was symmetry between her six years living and traveling in Asia and the plot of Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 blockbuster memoir of self-discovery. The book was, after all, subtitled "One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia." Ronon had made side trips to Italy. She knew intimately the terrain Gilbert traveled.

The book, which sold 7 million copies after receiving the Midas touch of Oprah Winfrey, follows Gilbert as she travels the world for a year piecing together her life after a divorce and rebuilding it into something she wants instead of the life she is expected to have.

The story resonated with Ronon.

"I felt like I was living the book," she says. "It was amazing how many people gave me a copy."

Ronon now works in St. Petersburg as an executive vice president of merchandising for HSN, formerly known as Home Shopping Network. So when an opportunity came for HSN to partner with Sony Pictures for the Aug. 13 release of the movie based on the book, Ronon had a vision for how to reach the millions of women in her viewing audience who had read it.

HSN on Friday will begin a 72-hour sell-a-thon of merchandise themed to the book and movie's exotic locations. The event, which includes 20 of HSN's partners and brands, highlights more than 400 items across home decor, travel, beauty, electronics, cooking, accessories and ready-to-wear categories.

Living the book

For those who love the book and are excited to see the movie, which stars Julia Roberts, HSN offers a chance to purchase the "Eat, Pray, Love" lifestyle.

Each day will feature products themed to a different location. On Friday, it's Italy - the "eat" part of "Eat, Pray, Love." Viewers who want to indulge in the deliciousness of the old country can pick up a Viante Electric Pasta Maker with 10 pasta discs for $169.

If that's too pricey, consider dropping $49.95 for a 3-pound Silver Shell Shrimp Scampi and Alfredo dinner; the shrimp are enrobed in frozen Alfredo sauce that releases in the pan as the shrimp cooks. When the dish is done, so is the Alfredo.

For Saturday's India "pray" theme, viewers can buy a set of Princess Jaipur gemstone prayer beads in amethyst, rose quartz or clear quartz for $39.90, plus $5.95 for shipping and handling.

Model and "Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi will appear in studio to sell her Easy Exotic Aladdin Teapot with Blooming Teas. The $34.95 teapot is clear so that the buyer can see the tea ball "bloom" into a flower as it seeps. Lakshmi says the teapot "was inspired by the old-world ritual of afternoon tea during the British raj."

Wrapping up on Sunday with "love" products evoking the book and movie's Bali setting, HSN will sell a set of "Eat, Pray, Love" Lancome Lip Gloss tubes for $36 (plus $6.21 for shipping), as well as three Hutton Wilkinson "Eat, Pray, Love" dream journals for $24.95, plus $5.20 for shipping and handling (dreams not included).

Ronon said the sales event makes sense for both HSN and Sony. HSN says about 83 percent of its audience are women ages 30 to 50 years old with above-average income. It's the same demographic Sony Pictures aims to lure into theaters.

"This is a story that resonates with the female audience," Ronon says. "It's a story about a personal discovery for someone, and we offer discoveries every day that tie in with the products we offer."

'Eat, Pray' transforms

To understand why HSN would want to tie in to the movie, it helps to understand the publishing phenomenon that "Eat, Pray, Love" became.

Kathleen Flinn, whose book "The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry" came out around the same time as "Eat, Pray, Love," said Gilbert's memoir and Julie Powell's "Julie & Julia" exploded the idea of what was perceived as a niche genre. They also rewrote the rules for noncelebrity memoirs.

Gilbert "demonstrated (the genre) could have really broad appeal," says Flinn, who lives part time in Sarasota. Gilbert wrote a blurb for Flinn's book before "Eat, Pray, Love" was published.

"It made it OK to write a memoir in your 30s. There is something super-pretentious about writing a memoir when you're 36."

What makes the book compelling is that it contains universal truths for modern women, Flinn says.

"Unlike men, if you're 35 and single and you have no prospects, it's terrifying," she says. "We're all told that this is the life you want."

Similar to Gilbert, Flinn wrote about having a great job in London but being miserable and lonely.

"I felt that I let my life run me instead of me running my life," she says.

Flinn found new purpose and love after enrolling in Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. That experience became the basis for "The Sharper Your Knife."

She says she doesn't begrudge Gilbert for the success of "Eat, Pray, Love."

"At some point if you're successful enough, you become a commodity," she says. "I'm an author. I would love every author to be successful. But the nature of publishing isn't like that."

As for the HSN selling marathon? Flinn finds no fault.

"If people want to buy to be like Elizabeth Gilbert, there are a lot worse people to want to be like."

Will fans buy?

Tampa writer and teacher Catherine Durkin Robinson, who bares her emotions on her mom blog, Out In Left Field, still can't believe she read "Eat, Pray, Love." She's not someone who enjoys "chick lit."

"When Oprah liked it, I knew I wouldn't like it," she says. "Then I heard Julia Roberts was in the movie. Strike 3. No way."

But faced at an airport bookstore with buying either Gilbert's book or "Are You There, Vodka? It's Me Chelsea," by Chelsea Handler, Robinson chose the former based on advice from friends.

She was surprised to find she related to Gilbert and her writing, if not the author's troubled marriage. (She and her husband, Mark, are just fine, she says.) The book inspired her to change her writing to a more personal, introspective style that was kinder and less confrontational and sassy.

"The hate mail stopped," Robinson says. "I just got a much better response from people. It wasn't the goal, but it was a nice side effect."

Will that personal transformation prompt her to buy merchandise from TV that is themed to the book? Probably not.

"I've teased all my 'Twilight' friends about what they buy" from those books and movies, she says. "I can't turn around and do it for 'Eat, Pray, Love.'"

Still, she doesn't discount such purchases.

"I think it would be good for people in general who see these things for sale if it encourages them to get the book and read it and apply the things Gilbert is talking about," Robinson says.