Since I fancy myself a writer but not a reader, I’ve been trying to read more. How could I possibly reach my full potential if I never heard what the literary great’s “voices” sound like?

Starting with J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye seemed like a good idea since I wanted to see what all the hype was about anyway. Well there’s no audiobook for it, so that was out.

Listening to a book makes me feel like I’m cheating, but it helps me to stay focused. Instead of getting to the end of a page and realizing I just thought about ice cream the whole time, I actually pay attention to the book. Plus I can also puzzle-nerd away. Win/win ✅

When I told PJ I wanted to read all the literary classics, but couldn’t get my ears on The Catcher in the Rye, he said he didn’t like that book. Actually, I believe his exact words were, “That book suuuuuckkked.” (Did I ever mention that one of the best things about PJ is that there’s not a pretentious bone in his body? If he likes something, he likes it no matter what anyone thinks. After all, two of his favorite things are the Mets and me – so that tells you something.)

I’d heard about Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar – most notably because back in the day, people made a big deal about Gwyneth Paltrow playing Plath in a movie. Well if it’s good enough for Gwynnie, it’s good enough for me.

*side note – don’t even hate on my Gwynnie. That girl does not give a single flying flip and that’s why I love her. So what if she made a candle called “This Smells like my Vagina”, and has an annual wish list that adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars? That shit is funny. Would it be better if she pretended she was poor even though everyone knows she was born into Hollywood royalty? And if you tell me you’re not curious about what that candle smells like, you’re lying. My Gwynnie is the epitome of the saying – It’s better to be completely ridiculous than completely boring.

So I listened to The Bell Jar. I don’t think it’s everyone’s cup of tea, but I enjoyed it and was heartbroken at the same time because it details her spiral down into depression.

Plath originally put out The Bell Jar under a pseudonym because she didn’t want to offend anyone who saw their likeness in her writing. She was probably also trying to avoid letting people know what was truly going on inside her head.

After all, what goes on in someone’s mind is a secret for everyone but it’s owner, right? If you really think about that, it can mess with you. Especially if you’re like me and want to know every single thing about someone that you’re interested in. You can be so close to someone and never really know them at all.

But instead of dwelling on things that we could never possibly know, we should rejoice in the fact that people like Plath poured their minds and hearts out onto pages for us to dissect and enjoy forever. And hey, for a mere $75 we can even know what Gwyneth Paltrow’s vagina smells like – who would have ever imagined that?!