I say this to my kids all the time. Do it for the plot. Do it for the story. Tell yourself if it all goes wrong it will just be a funny story. Ironically job interviews, dates, and public speaking go better anyway if you're just happy to be there and not overthinking it!!
look I think it’s fine to say some books aren’t for you but there is this impulse among Male Literary Intellectuals to dismiss Austen as just a silly girl gossip book, when it is, in fact, about surviving as a woman in a world that views them as inherently silly
The desire for intimacy has to be matched by an admittance of the ugliness of vulnerability. Especially of the parts of yourself that you never have to confront when you engage at the shallow end