Been feeling like shit the past few days about my gender identity. I don't know if i can even call being trans a problem because I feel a lot of days there is no solution. I'm always gonna ahve the wrong body, I'm losing hope in dating because I keep meeting these really inadequate potential mates. I need a book to help me get through the tough times and the gender dysphoria and the feeling that nothing will get better. If I had all the money in the world yes I might ahve considered top surgery and a hysterectomy. But I dont' want to feed my money into the health system for a solution that isn't really a solution. I need a book that i can turn to when I need to feel a little less alone and I'm at that point where I'm thinking, I've been feeling suicidal and different for as long as i can remember. Tell me it's going to get better. i go to work every day dressed up like a girl, being called a girl, still being asked out and touched by guys at my old work space even if I clearly look really really not like a cisgender/straight female. I don't know how to fucking cope with the shit that women and LGBT people have to put up with. So I need a book to read.
I can't recommend any books that would be specific to gender dysphoria and dealing with it but in case you might be interested in books not connected to the topic I would recommend O'Henry short stories. It is a collection of stories about random people, often in desperate or tricky situations and how they still find ways to have a fulfillment and happiness in small and unexpected things. These stories remind that world is not all darkness and misery and there is hope
Do you want normal books or trans specific ones? I just bought Alex Bertie's book Trans Mission. It just came in the mail so i've only read a few pages. He's a trans guy youtuber. Just from the chapter titles, i think it looks like a promising read. Other than that...god i read more fanfics than books. Manga? I love anime but i don't read manga. Harry Potter? Game of Thrones? If you can't tell, i like stuff that i can just get lost in.
I just finished Symptoms of Being Human and it was very good. It's about a genderfluid person. It's kinda angst heavy so I wouldn't read it on a bad day.
Hi, Foxfeather. I don't know your circumstances but there's a book, Gender Dysphoria, by Walter O Bockting. It's pricey, a textbook, mostly for professionals, but it reviews the condition and treatment practices. Walter was my therapist for many years, a sweet, gentle gay man from Holland. Very good, very smart. I haven't read his book for a long time and don't know if it would help but it does present gender dysphoria in a positive, understandable manner. Another book, a novel, Luna, by Julie Anne Peters. A young adult, trans coming of age book. Sweet and tender, hopeful. Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg, another coming out novel. A difficult, book, not an easy read. The main character has a hard, hard life. A must read for anyone coming our way but not necessarily fun to read. Feinberg was a tower in the trans/lesbian world years ago, wrote non-fiction and fiction. Powerful activist, strong person. Feinberg died a couple of years ago and I was sad. Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian. I read it once, don't remember much about it but it was an easy read. Anyway, just some thoughts. Best wishes. Susan