As I have mentioned before, occasionally at McGill one will find a free book box near the Redpath Library. This tends to be one of the highlights of my day. I have found all kinds of good stuff there.
One of the things about this box that I like in particular is that I am willing to pick up all kinds of things that under normal circumstances I would not consider buying. I have picked up some John LeCarre spy novels, some J. D. Salinger, some Dickens, among many other things.
Yesterday, I was pleased to find an Oprah Book Club selection and a copy of The Merchant of Venice on my way to class. As I was returning from class I came across the weekly Wednesday jackpot, several full bins of free books.
After just a few minutes of searching through these bins I came across a book whose title and cover page I thought that I recognized from an episode of Wonder Years. The book in question is Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex – But Were Afraid To Ask (EYAWTKASBWATA) by David Reuben.
Once I returned home after class I started to flip through EYAWTKASBWATA, as I too have questions that I am afraid to ask. I immediately surprised to find some of the chapters titled as they were. It seems that “Frigidity,” “Male Homosexuality,” and “September Sex” are chapter titles that I wouldn’t expect to find in a book published today.
More importantly, the content was something that I didn’t really expect to find. Most importantly, this guy has never heard of Viagra. His entire “Impotence” chapter needs to be re-written. Another chapter in need of a major re-evaluation is the one on “Male Homosexuality.” In this case there are too many problems to point out here. I would only recommend reading it as a historical document representing the mood of the 1960’s and certainly not as an information source. If one is gay this book would make one more afraid to ask than before.
Hopefully the quality of today’s other two finds will be higher.
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