The Bisexual's Guide to the Universe - book discontinued by Alyson Publications - review by Snow

Around Christmas time last year I picked up The Bisexual’s Guide To The Universe|The Bisexual's Guide to the Universe and leafed through it while I was shopping for a gift for my sister. It seemed fun so I decided to get it for myself on another occasion. When I had the opportunity to review it for Eden I jumped on it.

I was, however, slightly disappointed with the book. For all of its talk about no stereotype really fitting bisexuals I found that it employed the already overused stereotypes of straight or gay people far too much. It also used the stereotypes about bisexual people, though in a tongue in cheek sort of way, far too much. I know it was a joke, but I found the idea that bisexuals think about sex 24/7 and the idea that we find almost everything sexy particularly irritating. Not to mention that some of their facts you have to take with a grain of salt. This is by no means a book I would give to people who were unsure about their own sexuality to discover more about bisexuality.

However, if you are quite confident in your (bi)sexuality I would say sure, go ahead and read this book. It does contain useful information, and it is very successful at inspiring pride in your own sexuality. Bisexuals often hide in one of the two ‘camps,’ myself included, and the most important point from this whole read is that the only way we can raise awareness about the fact that we do exist is to not to be afraid of talking about it. Next time someone assumes I am a lesbian (I happen to be dating a woman right now) I will correct them and say that I like both men and women.

Often I judge a book on whether or not I think it is worth the paper it is printed on and in this case I would say, yes it is. It is a fun read and sometimes a very interesting read, but be careful about taking it too seriously.