(First, go to this post if you don’t know what my #Before30BucketList is. I’ll also be going back to that original post and noting each goal accomplished if you want to keep up but miss out on some of my posts.)
I got pretty excited about this one. I found it on another list about things for women to do before they turn 30, not just anyone in general. Although I have weird views on what a woman is and all that, I do identify as a woman in most instances and have dealt with society’s views on women for my whole life. Plus, reading is pretty much my life, and for some reason I find that I haven’t read nearly enough “classics” that I should know like the back of my hand by now, so I jumped on this pretty quick.
I kind of chose this book randomly. First, everyone knows about Sylvia Plath. I follow a blog called The Belle Jar. I’m deeply affected by mental illness (though I’ve never been suicidal), and am constantly interested in how women lived during different eras because fuck, man, I couldn’t even imagine.
I was afraid it would be slow-reading, as many older books are to me, but I delved right in and didn’t stop. Between all of other lifely duties, it took me only a few days to finish the book. Some parts were riveting. Some parts were confusing. Mostly it left me with a sense of empathy and pride — because I understand what it’s like to not understand, and because so many of us have persevered to make a different world from the one in which Sylvia Plath lived.

Do you think she imagined someone like me reading someone like her when she was alive?
(I’m not going to write a book review or summary because that’s not really my style.)
Thankfully, I didn’t get depressed after finishing this novel, as I usually do when I read (or finish reading) books, which is kind of odd considering the material. Maybe it’s because I was more excited to have crossed another item off my list.
I absolutely recommend this book to everyone. Whether or not you take anything away from it is up to the way your brain interprets things, but either way it’s a good story.
Companions: Sylvia Plath
Cost
Book: $9
Goal Total: $9
9th Goal Accomplished
List Item #15: Read A Classic Novel About Women, By A Woman
On 4-23-2017
Bucket List Total: $167
[…] Rouxbe April 13th to June 12th) 13. Visit A New American City 14. Have Portrait Taken 15. Read Classic Novel About Women, By A Woman √ 16. Go Skinny Dipping 17. Throw A Dinner Party 18. Test Drive Dream Car (Velocity Driving in […]
LikeLike
Joanna Russ’s The Female Man or Suzy McKee Charnas’s Motherlines. There are some wonderful ones out there, and the best I can think of are fantasy or science fiction.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Are they considered classics? I’ve always been more drawn to memoir or non-fiction, but after binge-reading a bunch of Chuck Palahniuk’s stuff I’ve become more open to other genres.
LikeLike
[…] and then, but wasn’t overly worried about getting something. Then, the same day I finished reading The Bell Jar, I went to my in-laws for dinner (which we often do on Sundays or Mondays). I told my father-in-law […]
LikeLike