Title: The Sawbones Book: The Hilarious, Horrifying Road to Modern Medicine
Author: Justin McElroy & Sydnee McElroy
Genre: Adult, nonfiction, medical science
Publication date: October 2018
Published by: Weldon Owen
Source: Borrowed from library
Add it on Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | B&N | Thrift Books
Synopsis: A compelling, often hilarious and occasionally horrifying exploration of how modern medicine came to be!
Wondering whether eating powdered mummies might be just the thing to cure your ills? Tempted by those vintage ads suggesting you wear radioactive underpants for virility? Ever considered drilling a hole in your head to deal with those pesky headaches? Probably not. But for thousands of years, people have done things like this—and things that make radioactive underpants seem downright sensible! In their hit podcast, Sawbones, Sydnee and Justin McElroy breakdown the weird and wonderful way we got to modern healthcare. And some of the terrifying detours along the way.
Every week, Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin amaze, amuse, and gross out (depending on the week) hundreds of thousands of avid listeners to their podcast, Sawbones. Consistently rated a top podcast on iTunes, with over 15 million total downloads, this rollicking journey through thousands of years of medical mishaps and miracles is not only hilarious but downright educational. While you may never even consider applying boiled weasel to your forehead (once the height of sophistication when it came to headache cures), you will almost certainly face some questionable medical advice in your everyday life (we’re looking at you, raw water!) and be better able to figure out if this is a miracle cure (it’s not) or a scam.
As I’ve explored genres outside my comfort zone, one subgenre of nonfiction that I discovered that I really enjoy is science. And, specifically, in this case, medical science. When I picked up this book, I was hoping it would sort of be in the same vein as Quackery, and it kind of was! I really enjoyed it!
One thing I really enjoyed about this book was the voice. I feel like that can make or break a nonfiction book for me. I really liked the interjections from the authors as they explained things or just quipped. That was really funny. Plus, I really appreciated the warnings and the authors giving you a chance to jump ship if things got too icky. Lol.
When I read a book, I usually jot down my thoughts or point out things that were interesting to me, but with this book, I just had fun reading this, vibing with it, that I didn't even stop to take notes. Lol.
It talked about a lot of interesting stuff. Like back in the 1700s when certain crimes were "punishable by dissection," thus allowing physicians to dissect bodies of murderers after they were executed for, you know, science! Lol. This was called the Murder Act, and it was WILD! Or that one guy who made an anti-seasickness ship... yeah, it's as dumb as it sounds... and it, of course, did not work. Lol. And then there was the DIY cadavers, where people literally resorted to MURDER to get cadavers to sell to medical schools. Wild times indeed 😅
One thing I really appreciated about this book was how all of these things were told almost in a linear fashion. You know, starting with the ancient Egyptians and Greeks and moving along the timeline as treatments changed. It was just so interesting and horrific all at once, the way people were treated back in the day. One of the authors, the non-doctor Justin McElroy lol, always voiced my thoughts out loud, like how dumb doctors were back then. Lol. Though I suppose, in their defense, they didn't have the scientific or technological advancements we do today, so things seemed (and were!) a lot more barbaric then.
At the end of each section, there was a "Do We Still Do This Today" segment. I liked this because a lot of them were a resounding "hell no!" while some of them were "Yes, BUT!" Intriguing, right?
I flew through this book, though! There are some nonfiction books that can be hard to read, but this one wasn't! think I finished it in just over a day. It was a fun read with a lot of interesting information and cool illustrations. I enjoyed it!
When I read a book, I usually jot down my thoughts or point out things that were interesting to me, but with this book, I just had fun reading this, vibing with it, that I didn't even stop to take notes. Lol.
It talked about a lot of interesting stuff. Like back in the 1700s when certain crimes were "punishable by dissection," thus allowing physicians to dissect bodies of murderers after they were executed for, you know, science! Lol. This was called the Murder Act, and it was WILD! Or that one guy who made an anti-seasickness ship... yeah, it's as dumb as it sounds... and it, of course, did not work. Lol. And then there was the DIY cadavers, where people literally resorted to MURDER to get cadavers to sell to medical schools. Wild times indeed 😅
One thing I really appreciated about this book was how all of these things were told almost in a linear fashion. You know, starting with the ancient Egyptians and Greeks and moving along the timeline as treatments changed. It was just so interesting and horrific all at once, the way people were treated back in the day. One of the authors, the non-doctor Justin McElroy lol, always voiced my thoughts out loud, like how dumb doctors were back then. Lol. Though I suppose, in their defense, they didn't have the scientific or technological advancements we do today, so things seemed (and were!) a lot more barbaric then.
At the end of each section, there was a "Do We Still Do This Today" segment. I liked this because a lot of them were a resounding "hell no!" while some of them were "Yes, BUT!" Intriguing, right?
I flew through this book, though! There are some nonfiction books that can be hard to read, but this one wasn't! think I finished it in just over a day. It was a fun read with a lot of interesting information and cool illustrations. I enjoyed it!
No comments:
Post a Comment