When people find out I'm a librarian, the first comment that pops up is usually, "That must be great. To have a job where you read all day." I hate bursting their bubble, but as awesome as my job is, I don't sit in my cubicle reading books all day. Oh, I do a ton of reading, but it's usually in the form of book reviews, promotional e-mails, blogs, etc. Which is how I heard about this happy little book that's coming out in November 2009.Flow: The Cultural Story Of Menstruation by Elissa Stein and Susan Kim.
Yep, someone wrote a book about periods.
I'll admit, this book intrigues me. In between my course load of British history classes in college, I took several women's studies/women's history classes and always found it fascinating. It also made me very appreciative that I was born in the latter half of the 20th century (seriously, glory hallelujah!).
What will this book cover? Well, looking at the book's web site, I'm guessing what the hell we poor women had to endure until Kotex came on the market. Also, the other use of Lysol (which I knew about already, but it still horrifies me!), and how doctor's would treat hysteria for their female patients (hey, I know it makes me feel better, but in a doctor's office? Talk about clinical!).
Flow's Youtube Channel
Take it from a librarian, they really will publish books on just about any subject. Although honestly, this isn't the weirdest book I've ever heard about. I think that honor still goes to the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia.
19 comments:
A book about periods? Wow! How do you find these books?! I must admit that this does sound kind of interesting. I'm just trying to figure out how the author stretched the topic of periods to create a full legnth novel.
Periods!?! I hate that they arrive every month, I don't want to read about them too. Who thinks up these things?!!
I must have this book.
I have two comments and they are equally as smart-ass-ish. But I feel the need to contribute.
One--Hey it must be great to read all day! LUCKY!
sorry.
Two- Makes you feel good, huh? You perv.
OMG I heart you Wendy. And yes, I'd read this book.
I thought I'd seen it all when I read "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" when I was trying to get preggo with my first baby! lol This one takes the cake though imho. :)
Oh heck, you can find stuff about the history of periods all over the internet now. I remember because someone wanted to know about Moon Cups. (Course if you prefer to order American rather then UK there's also Diva Cups.) Which led to links to websites like this one. Oh and here's a book I found on Amazon.
See? All been done before.
Here's a fun fact. When questioned about the bloody rags the police found in a bucket, Lizzie Borden claimed that she was menstruating. They never bothered to try and prove otherwise. (Found that out The Cases That Haunt Us.)
I may just be a library clerk but I'm a library clerk filled with useless trivia no one cares about!
So librarians just sit around reading books all day, it's a wonder books are even on the shelves :)
I truly believe I know as much as I need to about the subject of periods--I'll be passing on this one ;)
Cool! I could read this with my 11 year old daughter!
LOL, Wendy. I worked in a bookstore for many years and I used to get the same comment all the time about spending your day reading.
Working at a bookstore was physically the hardest work I've ever done day after day, and we would get fired if we ever just stood or sat there and read, so it was pretty ironic.
If only I could find a job where someone would pay me to read! Sigh.
Barbara, BCC & Victoria: I read so little non-fiction these days, but I'm thinking I might have to pick this one up. Color me curious.
Lisa: Fellow pervs living in glass houses shouldn't throw stones :P
Tracy: Oh, it can get way more bizarre than fertility books - trust me. Some of the stuff published by the academic presses is particularly "out there."
Jami: I'm not much of a "true crime" girl - so I hadn't heard that about Lizzie Borden! OMG - that was genius!
One thing working in a library will get you? Kick ass Trivial Pursuit skills.
Tara Marie: Yeah, I tend to sit around and not read books. Lots of reviews, lots of magazines, lots of e-mail.....
Fiona: Ha! Yeah, when she gets her period you can show her this book and tell her at least she wasn't born two centuries earlier. That should make her feel somewhat better :)
Karen: I never worked in a bookstore, but I can imagine! You're on your feet all day, doing a lot of bending and lifting...ugh! And you're around all those pretty, shiny, NEW books and you can't stop and read any of them? Torture! Pure torture!
SL, just remember what they said about curiosity. Of course when I saw the title of the book the self-involved devil angel in me said,"Stories? Aunt Flow? I can tell you stories!"
What does it me that my word verification is 'MANGYMET'???
You made me flash back to that awful school film they made us watch in 7th grade, where the girl who got her period was so, so happy because she was "finally a woman" (gag!)
Many thanks for taking time to check Flow out! Starting conversations about something most people rarely talk about, is one of the reasons we wrote the book.
Speechless at the moment and yet, yeah, I might have to read that book. But I'm afraid of the nightmares it may induce!
CindyS
I'm actually thinking I might read this. It sounds interesting. Or - maybe I will make my HUSBAND read it. MUWHAHAHAHAHAHA. Love your blog, by the way. :)
Rosie: Mangymet sounds like something you'd have to see a doctor to get rid of. Ewwww.....
Renee: Gag, indeed. If we all knew then what we know now huh?
Hi Elissa! I get e-mails from your publisher - which is how I heard about your book!
CindyS: I'm probably going to check it out if only to reinforce how overjoyed I am that I was born when I was ;)
R&R: That's just mean! LOL
Speechless over that book - though it does sound interesting.
Have you seen some of these book titles? This completely cracked me up! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookseller/Diagram_Prize_for_Oddest_Title_of_the_Year
Lynn: OMG - those were fantastic!
BTW - Does anyone else ever have trouble closing the Flow site? I've had that problem both on my personal and work computer. I opened it more then once to putter around but afterwards had to use the task manager to get it to close. Hitting the X didn't do it. And one time even had to reboot the computer manually.
I don't know if it's a problem with quicktime or what. I do know the video did not work on my work computer because it doesn't have QT installed and I won't install a program without permission from someone higher up.
I figured since I work at a library, though I'm just a clerk and have no purchasing power, they couldn't object to me looking at a book's website. Especially since our head adult librarian is male and is already teasing me about depending on me to pick out the fiction books. (He only likes graphic novels and non-fiction. Though I suspect this is one non-fiction book he won't want to touch. LOL)
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