How to Be a Playgirl
Book Details
Author(s)Jessanne Collins
PublisherChase Road
ISBN / ASINB00EDWE2BO
ISBN-13978B00EDWE2B0
Sales Rank501,900
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
Jessanne Collins fell in love with magazines as an idealistic teenager. But after years of working in publishing, she was beginning to wonder if actually finding a job at one was impossible. Self-serious and a smidge overanalytical, Collins was surprised to suddenly find herself with a job offer from Playgirl—a dream come true wrapped in an existential nightmare.
Founded in the ‘70s by an entrepreneur determined to cash in on the newly liberated modern woman, the magazine had gone through more than a few identity changes by the time Collins sat for an interview. And while working at a magazine full of pictures of naked dudes wasn't exactly what Collins had in mind, she also knew that this might be her best chance at the future she'd imagined.
HOW TO BE A PLAYGIRL is her account of this extraordinary experience. From day one, when she finds on her desk a deflated blow-up doll and a package of something called “adhesive underwear,†Collins is in alien terrain, an upside-down corporate world where everything is exposed and yet nothing is as it seems. With wit, compassion, and candor, Collins offers an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek inside this iconic publication as well as a modern-day fable about taking a leap in the pursuit of a dream.
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Jessanne Collins is the Editor-In-Chief at mental_floss, the magazine for "knowledge junkies." She has written for The New York Times, Salon, The Awl, The Millions, and The New York Observer.
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"Funny and full of bare butt, How to Be a Playgirl is also a cogent report from today's changing media landscape, full of the unique insight that comes from straddling (figuratively!) the challenges of an editorial job at a doomed publication."
- Mike Albo, Co-Author of THE UNDERMINER
"With wry wit and an eye for damning, hilarious detail, Jessanne Collins imbues the death throes of a ridiculous magazine with dignity and pathos, penis jokes notwithstanding."
- Emily Gould, Author of AND THE HEART SAYS WHATEVER
How to Be a Playgirl is so funny it will make your chiseled, well-oiled abs ache with laughter (even if you don't have chiseled, well-oiled abs). Jessanne Collins has given us a delightful peek into the world of hunks and lumberjack costumes. But her book is not just about the last days of the legendary magazine. It's also about relationships, finding your calling and the changing media landscape.
-- AJ Jacobs, Author of THE KNOW-IT-ALL and THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY
Founded in the ‘70s by an entrepreneur determined to cash in on the newly liberated modern woman, the magazine had gone through more than a few identity changes by the time Collins sat for an interview. And while working at a magazine full of pictures of naked dudes wasn't exactly what Collins had in mind, she also knew that this might be her best chance at the future she'd imagined.
HOW TO BE A PLAYGIRL is her account of this extraordinary experience. From day one, when she finds on her desk a deflated blow-up doll and a package of something called “adhesive underwear,†Collins is in alien terrain, an upside-down corporate world where everything is exposed and yet nothing is as it seems. With wit, compassion, and candor, Collins offers an exclusive behind-the-scenes peek inside this iconic publication as well as a modern-day fable about taking a leap in the pursuit of a dream.
- -
Jessanne Collins is the Editor-In-Chief at mental_floss, the magazine for "knowledge junkies." She has written for The New York Times, Salon, The Awl, The Millions, and The New York Observer.
- -
"Funny and full of bare butt, How to Be a Playgirl is also a cogent report from today's changing media landscape, full of the unique insight that comes from straddling (figuratively!) the challenges of an editorial job at a doomed publication."
- Mike Albo, Co-Author of THE UNDERMINER
"With wry wit and an eye for damning, hilarious detail, Jessanne Collins imbues the death throes of a ridiculous magazine with dignity and pathos, penis jokes notwithstanding."
- Emily Gould, Author of AND THE HEART SAYS WHATEVER
How to Be a Playgirl is so funny it will make your chiseled, well-oiled abs ache with laughter (even if you don't have chiseled, well-oiled abs). Jessanne Collins has given us a delightful peek into the world of hunks and lumberjack costumes. But her book is not just about the last days of the legendary magazine. It's also about relationships, finding your calling and the changing media landscape.
-- AJ Jacobs, Author of THE KNOW-IT-ALL and THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY
