Merry Wanderer of the Night [Search results for haunted bookshop] 

I went to Iowa City this week for a class, and even though I'm there all the time for most of the year I feel like I'm at a destination when I'm not living there. I stayed with a friend and it almost felt like a little vacation. And what do I do on vacations? Buy books. More than I need.

My first stop was my all time favorite book store The Haunted Bookshop. No offense to Prairie Lights enthusiasts, but I think The Haunted Bookshop is the best bookstore in Iowa City. It just has so much class. For none ICers, the bookstore is used, rare, and out-of-print, but mostly used and that is why I go there. I justify my purchases by claiming I am recycling books. I went there to search for Ariel by Sylvia Plath or some Anne Sexton, but was not lucky in that respect. I did run into my fitness walking TA though, who I love mostly because she enjoyed the Pride and Prejudice reference I made in my fitness walking paper.* I did pick up three books though, Good Girls Bad Girls: Feminists and Sex Trade Workers Face to Face, Talking Ip: Young Women's Take on Feminism, and The Feminine Mystique. What can I say, The Haunted Bookshop has an awesome women's studies section.

But I was still sad I couldn't find Ariel so I headed to Barnes and Noble. I had a couple of gift cards and I decided to use one. Barnes and Noble is a less exciting bookstore, although I'll admit that I do like it there. The Iowa City one has some neat displays on Iowan writers and they have the best magazine selection I have seen at any Barnes and Noble. Ever.

But I must admit I missed the two lovely cats The Haunted Bookshop has.

*In case you were wondering about the Pride and Prejudice reference, we had to write a paper about how walking is perceived now. I talked about how people think walking long distances will kill them (at least that is my mother's reaction when I head off on a three plus mile trek), but people used to have to walk most places. For an example I used Elizabeth Bennett, and I said if she can walk to another town, in the rain, in uncomfortable shoes and clothing, then I can surely walk up to the grocery store.

This week I finally got to put my notes into Microsoft Access rather than write them on a legal pad. I love legal pads, but I found I made much more specific notes when I was working on the computer because there were actual fields for me to fill out. Working with the personal papers is pretty interesting, but I don't know about so much of the stuff sometimes it can be frustrating. And some of the files are just repeats of letters addressed to different people, but I don't know that's all that is in there until I go through the entire file. I think I mentioned this last week, but I find the death certificates a lot more interesting. Today I actually started to see the same names repeated. I saw what I assumed was the grandfather in the family died from a heart attack, and then a few months later his 18-year-old grandson died in an automobile accident. This was actually really interesting, because the death year was 1924 so cars were fairly new at that point. I'm sure it was a really scary experience for the family when they realized how dangerous cars actually were.

This is an example of a Canadian death certificate, which I obviously don't work with, but it gives you an idea of the kind of fun I have deciphering handwriting!

I worked by myself quite a bit this week, but I'm getting to know my coworkers a little bit more. Today I went out to lunch with all of them to a great Greek restaurant downtown. Afterward we went to an antique shop called Found Things where I spotted a table I kind of want to buy. I really like the idea of just leaving in the middle of the day for an hour and visiting some of your favorite places in downtown Des Moines. The State Historical Society is at a great location with quite a few neat restaurants and shops near it. On Tuesday I went to a used bookstore that I pass on my way to work, but I was sadly disappointed with the selection. And for how little they did have I thought they were incredibly overpriced. Maybe I'm just spoiled by The Haunted Bookshop in Iowa City. They are extremely fair in their pricing.

Speaking of Iowa City, today I was going through University of Iowa brochures from the 1980's and I just couldn't help but get lost in them for about an hour. I almost started crying when I saw all of these familiar places that I miss so much. I really do miss Iowa City and I think I'm starting to annoy my parents with talking about it all the time. On the bright side, that is one of the great things about working in the archives. It's so easy to get lost in a file and try to put together the story of what exactly did happen. It seems like I find at least one thing every day that I'm fascinated by. I'm taking a little notebook with me to work to jot down some of the most interesting ones, and then I try to look up more information about them later.

Check out my post from week one if you haven't already.

I found Talking Up: Young Women's Take on Feminism

at my favorite bookstore (The Haunted Bookshop, Iowa City) while I was looking for a copy of the Feminine Mystique. I ended up finding a copy of the book I wanted, but decided to get Talking Up as well and it turned out that I decided to read it first. Since the book is a series of essays written by girls between the ages of 16 and about 28 I thought the book would be right up my alley. I have struggled recently with the idea of Feminism and what it means to be a Feminist in today's world, and while this book was written in 1998 by young Australian women there was still a lot to this book and it helped me feel like I was not alone. The book is divided into five sections: Learning Feminism, Bodies and Battlefields, Generationalism: The Ties That Bind, Voices: Mapping the Self, and Acting Up. The way the essays work is almost like a journey through the process of Feminism. The discovery of the feelings, the reasons for the feelings, bonding with others who feel the same way, finding your own Feminism, and then doing something about it.

Some of the essays were excellent, and by that I mean they either put my feelings into words that I have found difficult to pull together or that they made me see something I had never seen before. Some of the essays, while not bad, were a little boring. Or just didn't agree with their thoughts. But that is one of the things I liked about this book, it helped me realize what exactly I do agree with and don't agree with in terms of Feminism. There were also some parts of this book that were uniquely Australian, but that didn't mean I couldn't apply the thoughts to American Feminism. One of my favorite essays early on in the book was Like a Corporate Virgin by Tara Gutman. The essay begins, "I wasn't born a pilot or a lawyer. I have bcome these. Now was I born a feminist. I have become one. Unlike that former, which are the result of specific training, it is hard to say how, or even when, I became a feminist" (30). From that very first quote I knew this was going to be an interesting and controlled essay and I was right.

This collection deals with body image issues, the media and women, motherhood, female friendships, lesbianism, typecasting feminists, and so much more. I did feel like I enjoyed the earlier essays in the book more than the later ones, but I think part of that might be that I haven't gotten to the point that was reached by the end of the book yet. What amazed me most about the book though, was how little has changed in 12 years. Because really, very little has in regards to young Feminism. We are still fighting the media, we are still fighting the common use of derogatory terms used towards females, sexual exploitation, and women still face problems in the workplace. A lot of people I know say that the work of Feminism is over, but it's just not true. I think this book really shows that.

This book gets a C, mostly because it did end as strongly as I would have liked.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.