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8-10. Those are not good books for an existing depressive mood. They will certainly aggrivate it. If you really want to be a masochist, you could add some Albert Camus, like the Stranger. You'll want to leave the planet then for sure.

I've got The Bell Jar on my bookshelf - could you review it for me?

In my experience an 8. When I reached chapter 11 of The Bell Jar I literally broke out in hives, my limbs went numb, and my stomach grew queasy, and after that I went a bit insane. Not a good idea, not at all.

It depends how you read them. I find reading Sylvia Plath's work quite inspiring- you have to remember that she didn't produce all her beautiful work because she was depressed (seriously depressed people are rarely capable of getting out of bed, let alone creating anything) she created it despite it. The Bell Jar isn't a surrender to depression, its not a suicide note, its a full force raging fight against it. It's a "I am not giving in without a f**king fight." Art and literature are the way we fight against the world, even if their subject seems negative, the fact that it exists, the fact that someone didn't let it get to them enough to destroy their capacity for creativity, for communication, is a great triumph for the human spirit against the things that try to kill it. A Clockwork Orange is more of a rage against society than personal demons- but still, like all art, it is a rage. (Remember "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."?) So read, but make sure you read them as a battle, not a surrender, and it might even make you feel a little bit better to know that even out of the mess that was her life, Plath could find enough worth in life to create a fabulous book and actually tell people about her experiences.