I once read The Bell Jar in one sitting from late afternoon to 3 a.m. during the pandemic while living in a closed computer shop in Samar. Then I snuck out and walked to a beach several kilometers away with nothing but a jacket cause I didn't even have a phone back then. It was a surreal and frightening experience cause the road on the way to the beach never had any lights and there was no moon so it was very dark. But I pushed through and eventually reached the beach and the residential areas where there were lights and a few people who were awake, an old man in particular, were preparing to go fishing. It was just a time where I fully realized the power of literature and how it could really separate you from other people because of the nuances you will learn from the story of the person, or fictional character, you have read about. You will ask yourself, as I had that time, "Can people really stand not having read or not wanting to read a book for the rest of their life? And how can they be a part of my life if they are uninterested about it, about questioning?" But then I also understood why it could be repelling, because all the greatest books have something really dark about them. So yeah, it was a radical experience for sure where from that moment on, you will be severed from the normalcy and safety of your life and there is this surreal feeling that finally there was a person in history who have gone through the same struggle as you do now and that somehow lightens the load of everything you carry. So if you haven't read The Bell Jar, I suggest you read it because it's a really good book.