Gabby Windey’s got opinions. Anyone who has listened to her podcast, Long Winded, would know that. On the airwaves, she tackles the manosphere, dirty talk, and heterofatalism between interviews with Lisa Rinna, Charli XCX, and her own wife, the comedian Robby Hoffman. To be fair, Windey already has the life experience to back up her diverse rotation of hot takes—something few influencers are able to tout. (“You’re minimizing my pain to a mere pinch? Obviously a man dictated this,” she recently quipped of getting an IUD put in without pain meds.)

She’s worked as an NFL cheerleader, intensive care unit nurse (winning the Pop Warner Humanitarian Award for her pandemic-era service), reality TV contestant (most recently on The Traitors), TV host, and now podcaster. In the time it takes most to establish one career, Windey is already eyeing her sixth: author. For HarperCollins, she’s penning a forthcoming series of comedic personal essays, pulling her stylistic touch points from David Sedaris and… the Brontë sisters? Here, the digital age Renaissance woman takes us through a reading list as disparate as her interests. 

When and where are you reading? Is it at night before bed or on the plane? 

All of those things. At night, I’m so sleepy, and I read on the Kindle, so I’ll only get a couple percent done. Hit me with technology, put a screen in my face. People say that’s not the point of reading, that it’s about the tactile sensation. Not for me. I think that’s gaslighting. You can’t read sideways with a book, and there’s no backlight—so how am I supposed to read in bed?

You’ve done so many different things—working in the ICU, reality TV, podcasting, cheerleading. Did your reading habits shift as you did?

Maybe it’s less about what I’m doing versus different times in my life. Now I’m getting into classics. I went to public school. I did not learn anything. Why are they teaching Ralph Waldo Emerson first? Everyone thinks they want to go live alone in the woods. It’s so odd when there are so many other good classics.

When I was nursing, I could read on night shifts, and I read When Breath Becomes Air, which really stuck with me. It’s about how we treat patients and prepare for death. Then, marrying my wife, she’s not a huge reader but her mom has the best taste. So Robby got me into Joan Didion, and then Eve Babitz, and I had an appreciation for that old Hollywood era. Obviously Joan Didion has an amazing vocabulary, so I feel like she taught me a lot.

Then I transitioned to classics with Wuthering Heights. I started because the movie came out, even though the movie is nothing like it, and then I never saw the movie, and I don’t care to see the movie ever. I’m writing a book of essays. It’s fun to put in really refined vocabulary speaking from the POV of a 4 year old. I feel like David Sedaris kind of does something similar. And it’s just cool to see that you can read someone’s writing from the 1800s, like, whoa, they speak the exact same language. That’s nuts to me.

On your podcast, you talk about sexuality, wellness, and intimacy. Where do you read up on those topics, and is there anywhere you avoid reading at all costs?

Well, I think anybody who writes on mental health is a scammer. We’re coming out of the self-help era, because after you read enough of them, you’re like, Oh, this is just capitalism. They want to make a buck. It’s like saying you’re a life coach. I need somebody to have credentials at this point.

It was oversaturated for a long time because people thought it was going to save their lives. I’m sure some book has, but not the run of the mill, “you can be a badass,” which is funny cause that’s where I started. You know you’re really depressed and you probably need an SSRI if you’re going through the self-help category of Barnes & Noble. Get out of there, see a psychiatrist or a therapist.

As far as sexuality, I have tried to read a couple books on gender and sexuality, but they’re so dense. I just kind of speak from my experience.

You’re just living it.

Literally.

Is there a book that you would recommend to all the people in the manosphere? 

Literally any book. I don’t think these boys can read or think that there’s anything out there besides crypto and dumbbells. This is dark; I don’t know if I can say it. I was gonna say Virginia Giuffre’s memoir. What would you recommend to them?

Maybe just something with a strong female protagonist.

Yes, I have noticed that I don’t know if I ever read from the point of view of a man. I do like Charles Bukowski, which I hate to admit, but you have to keep the art in its time. As far as his prose, he’s just really great and easy to understand.

I think when men like Charles Bukowski, it’s a red flag, and when women like it, it’s kind of cool and different.

Of course, I wish he wouldn’t objectify women, but he grew up so ugly and so alone and went through, literally, trauma is an understatement, with his cystic acne. Actually we can see how an incel is made through his POV.

That’s an interesting sort of retroactive take. This is the birthplace of the incel.

I don’t think he was a very charismatic guy. I don’t think he had a lot of friends. But he’s just a great writer, and I think that’s where it came from because he hated himself so much.

What would you say is the best book recommendation you’ve ever gotten?

I don’t trust recommendations at all. It’s like when somebody wants to set you up when you’re single, and then they show you the guy and you’re like, “Are you deranged?” Like, maybe this is fun for you, but like this is actually offensive. I get a lot of my recs on Reddit and everybody was like, “Read Rebecca, Rebecca is my favorite.” Rebecca was not it for me.

What Reddit threads are you on?

R/classics. My other favorite one is r/SkincareAddictionLux. It’s classic reading or high-end skincare that keeps me up at night.

Is there a book that ruined you, but in the best way?

I will say the saddest book I ever read was The Time Traveler’s Wife. I remember reading it on a plane. Some friends and I, we were taking a three-week trip to Vietnam and, like, AirAsia or whatever we were on, they kept having to bring me tissues because I was sobbing.

I’m not sure if this is a total lie but I did hear that you cry easier on planes because of the altitude.

Yes, the lack of oxygen. I believe it because I’m always crying hard, sobbing, at movies too.

Is there a book that you turn to when you’re looking for inspiration?

No, it would take too long to find it. Like, What page was it on? Did I highlight it? That’s the one of the worst parts about the Kindle is that you can’t really take notes. For vocab words, I like that they have the touch feature that’ll give you the definition and then I have a list of vocabulary words that I keep. But with my book of essays, you draw inspiration from everything you read. You can tell when I was reading the Brontë sisters because they have a very specific way of writing that I love. I was not inspired by Rebecca—me just talking shit on Rebecca. I cannot believe people said they liked it this much.

I don’t know if this happened with Rebecca, but I was going to ask if there’s a book you stopped reading in the middle.

If I say Rebecca one more time, I’ll literally have to silence myself. If I’m not into a book, I’ll stop. I have no ego with that. Reading already takes so long. There’s only so much time I have on this earth. I can’t waste it with a bad book. I’d rather get on TikTok.

Is there anything that you picked up and just ran through?

The Book Thief. So good, right? This is one of my favorite books, cause now I’m pretentious. I only read classics. Have you read The Rosie Project? It’s a love story, I wish I could read it again.

 

Gabby Windey’s Required Reading 

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, 2019
(Amazon, Barnes & Noble)

“It’s like a psycho thriller or whatever. It’s insane. Another one I wish I could read again for the first time.”

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, 1847
(Amazon, Barnes & Noble)

“I really liked it even though I know people don’t like it.”

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, 1963
(Amazon, Barnes & Noble)

“One of my favorites, but you have to be in a good place. You have to be medicated or you have to be not depressed, which, I don’t know anyone like that.”

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, 2005
(Amazon, Barnes & Noble)

“I started sobbing within the first 10 pages. It was so sad.”

Lament for Julia by Susan Taubes, 2023
(Amazon, Barnes & Noble)

“This one my friend recommended to me. She’s really well read. She’s a writer and so is her mom. I was gonna read it again because once isn’t enough. It was published posthumously. She died maybe in the ’70s and it was only published recently because she was another depressed woman in the ’60s who killed herself, just like Sylvia, just all of our girls. But the narrator is a third person that you don’t really see. It’s not a ghost, but it’s not her. I don’t even know anyone who would think of that idea.”