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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
dark
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
I really loved this book. I'm a huge fan of reading old-timey, weird medical stuff, so this was right up my alley. The author did an excellent job of incorporating original sources with his own narration. Beyond this, the footnotes and his sense of humor made the book a fun, accessible read. I definitely recommend it to anyone with an interest in medicine, particularly how BAD we used to be at it or how amazing the human body is at overcoming some wild injuries.
This book should be titled “Men Do Stupid Things And Then Their Doctors Write About It; or, When Doctors Are Incredibly Stupid”
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
I love reading "doctors of Reddit" threads, because for some reason I enjoy reading about all the injuries humans can survive and all the horrible things that can go wrong in our bodies. I picked this up because it sounded like it would be similar, except in book for and taken from historical cases.
And for the first 60%, that's really what it was. The author is a medical historian, so he introduced, periodically interrupted, and concluded the accounts from historical medical journals with his own commentary explaining the origins and effects of the historical treatments, providing potential diagnoses in some cases, and comparing with how something similar might be treated in the modern day.
The main problem is that, like a "doctors of Reddit" thread, you can only consume it for so many hours before you get tired of the subject. This would be a great book to peruse occasionally instead of reading straight through - get your dose of the fascinating medical stuff and then put it back on your shelf until you get the craving again. I checked this book out from the library, though, and deadlines mean I'm not really able to do that. So, unfortunately, this book goes in the Did Not Finish pile.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Blood, Medical content
This was a book club pick, and I started it thinking I would enjoy the content. However, this book turned out to be medical gore porn more than anomalies or medical mysteries. For example, there was an entire chapter on someone getting their penis stuck in a bottle due to an unfortunate circumstance. In addition to this, there was an entire section on people getting things stuck in their rectum.
There are plenty of Tik Toks and clickbait articles that cover these phenomena and the book seemed mocking more than informative.
There are plenty of Tik Toks and clickbait articles that cover these phenomena and the book seemed mocking more than informative.
funny
informative
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma
I think this would be a perfect book to read in print; in small snippets at a time. Listening to all the stories in a row on audio made all the craziness kind of blur together.
If this had been a book I owned, rather than a library audiobook, it would be great. It’s very much a dip in and out book, rather than something I would read / listen to in long sittings.
It would make a great podcast.
It would make a great podcast.