August 25, 2000 -- 2:21 AM
EST
In keeping with my effort to
update stuff around here lately a bit at a time, I was looking at my sad,
neglected booklist. I really need to update all that! Sometimes I think I ought
to just put a mini bookstore on my website to serve as my booklist. Then people
can cruise my list and then just point and click to get it if they like my
reading tastes. Would that be a good idea or not?
Tell me what you think on that
one.
Anyway, I'm feeling pretty happy
with myself because we went to another used book store and scored a big
basketful for really cheap. That ought to keep us busy for a while. Yay!
I got cookbooks, textbooks, kid
books, hobby books, all sorts of stuff. One of them was the double set of
Fat is A Feminist Issue vol. I and vol. II. I'd been through it before,
just never bought me a copy because I didn't want to pay full price for
something I wasn't going to use.
Don't get me wrong -- it's a
classic read, still very pertinent, and if you are struggling to separate
emotional nourishment needs from physical nourishment needs, it can help you
work it out and get past a lot of junk. If I had read it when I was younger, or
even if I had read it when I was just getting started with my body project, it
would have saved me a lot of grief and struggling to verbalize thoughts so I
could take action. It's hard to know how to solve something or get
help with it if you can't even get it out to describe it! It's
just that when I got to it, I'd already passed that stage.
Which got me thinking...
if you found a person who was
just thinking about starting on a body project -- what books would you point
them to? Like if you could make a "book kit" to help them -- what
books would you give them? Why? ( While I'm on this website maintenance kit I
ought to add that thought to the topics dujour!)
Here's my kit...
- Real Gorgeous: for coping
with media blasted unrealistic expectations and boosting self image. And
because we all need to laugh and the cartoons and writing is funny. If you are
very overweight and need something dealing with this more from that angle but
still funny -- Fat!So?
- The Body Project: To give
you a sense of history and how fickle fashion is and how aesthetics are in the
eye of the beholder. If you really like that make-up thing, Hope in a Jar:
the Making of American Beauty Culture. If you really like that fashion
thing, particularly underwear like the panty freak I am, Support and
Seduction : A History of Corsets and Bras
- Deal With It: For the
younger girls/teens or the women who had spotty education about all sorts of
girly things and who's lack of knowledge is making them feel weird or ashamed
or just... funky.
- Fat is a Feminist Issue:
for exploring coping skills and emotional stuff that could trip you up. If you
get into that "women's studies" category of reading, The
Obsession as a follow-up.
- The Complete Book of
Fitness: To give you the basics of what this exercise business is about.
Like Running? The Complete Book of Running. Like in-line skating or mountain
biking? William Nealy's books on those. Like yoga? Yoga for destressing. Like
something else, get another person to make suggestions because that's where I
stop.
- The Vegetarian Way
(whether or not you are vegetarian) for understanding what the nutrition
business is about in greater detail but in an easy to understand way.
- Femalia and Early
Erotic Photography. These are hard to find, and the easily offended will
find them pornographic. Be forewarned! But if you insist on looking at
other woman bodies to see how yours compares, at least get sources that aren't
digitally altered or enhanced like today's media! See? A boob is a boob, a
belly is a belly, hair grows in funny places, private parts are private parts,
legs are legs, they come in all shapes, sizes colors and nobody needs to get
all bent out of shape that theirs are somehow... broken or inadequate!
- Minding the Body or
Adios Barbie: short story collections by women who've been there, done
that, felt it too, and so you aren't alone
- Any plain old basic cookbook
you like and can deal with, especially if you don't cook already. Need a
place to start looking for one? Try any of the ones by Sue Spitler or if
that looks too hard
Cooking With Three Ingredients. It doesn't even necessarily
have to be super fancy, ultra low-fat or some special diet-y one like Weight
Watchers or whoever. It just has to be somewhat reasonable with directions you
can understand and ingredients that you know so you'll use it.ANYTHING
beats out eating out calorie wise with those monster restaurant portions and
it's easier on the budget. It doesn't take a dietitian to figure out McDonald's
or Outback daily isn't good for weight or health or your wallet. Or that soda
as your main drink is a wowing thing nutritionally or for your waist.
I totally sympathize with anyone
who's as book hungry as me. I don't want my MTV. I do want my books! If
they made a perfume that smelled like freshly printed paper... mmmm!
~Astrophe
  
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