Ever Had A Day Where You Felt Like This??????????????????????????

                                        That, of course, is Bette Davis, in her breakthrough role as Mildred, the venal waitress in the 1934 adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage." Here, she is about to die from tertiary syphilis, because she ended up doing more than waitressing.  It's a role I would love to play, but not in real life.

                                         But we've all had days when we have felt like Mildred, even without the STD.

                                        Reach for what comforts one most, I always say.

                                       But then, I thought, I am having a strange reading Summer. I had planned out a lot of things in advance, but have deviated so many times I seem, like Alice, to have lost my way.  So, I am just going with it.

                                         Which brings me to the next question--Should I re-read "Of Human Bondage?"  I read it first in college, and then at least fifteen years ago.  It is a rather depressing story.

                                              And that's when I came up with it.  The Depressive's Book List.

                                              Here are Ten Literary Works Guaranteed To Make You Depressed!

                                              1. ANYHING by Joan Didion!

                                              2. "The Bell Jar," by Sylvia Plath

                                              3. "Of Human Bondage," by W. Somerset Maugham

                                              4. "The Razor's Edge," by W. Somerset Maugham

                                             5.  "An American Tragedy," by Theodore Dreiser

                                              6. "Madame Bovary," by Gustav Flaubert

                                             7. "Anna Karenina," by Leo Tolstoy

                                             8. "The House Of Mirth," by Edith Wharton

                                            9. "Sophie's Choice," by William Styron

                                         10. "Looking For Mr. Goodbar," by Judith Rossner

                                       

  

                                               Anyone read individually will have you wanting to lock yourself in your bedroom.  Reading this entire list will place you in an institution.

                                               But, really, tell me, girls, should I re-read "Of Human Bondage?"