Today's pieces come together on the topic of trying to be the person you want to be, dancing around the line between finding yourself and trying too hard. Rosie Schaap reads an excerpt from her book, Drinking With Men, and Isaac Oliver gets us cozy with "How To Build a Gay Fire In 30 Easy Steps."

After an intro riff on hard books, rough patches, and some thoughts on novels read ten or so years ago, Rebecca Schiff reads a short story about romance with a down-on-his-luck pot grower, and Leslie Jamison reads an essay from her new book, The Empathy Exams. Read more at catapultreads.com and follow us on twitter at @CatapultReads.