Tech Student Publishes Book About History Of Bedroom

Tennessee Tech senior Braedon Jett published his first children’s book “Are Beds Just For Eating?” about the history of many common bedroom items.

Jett said he has always wanted to write a book and has had a long-held fascination with history. He said his dad is a publisher and told him if he wanted to write a book badly enough, the idea would come to him organically. He said while sitting in his bedroom one night, he began to wonder about the history of the items surrounding him.

“I think history is a very important thing for children to learn about,” Jett said. “It’s where we came from, and I also think it makes them realize how great their lives are compared to our ancestors back in the day.”

Jett said he researched the history of things like beds and dressers all the way back to prehistoric times. He said he is pleased with how the book turned out and it is now available on Amazon and Kindle.

“One of my favorite chapters is the chapter about books itself,” Jett said. “I have a lot of books in my room so I figured that would be a good topic to write about. One of the things that I found to be very interesting was that one of the first authors that claimed their own work was a female priestess in ancient Babylon. One of those weird facts that you wouldn’t really think about.”

He said the book explains that 99 percent of ancient beds were made of hay. He said he learned in his research that the beds would get infested with bugs and had to be hit with sticks to irradicate the pests before becoming suitable for sleeping. He said this is where the adage, “hit the hay” comes from. Jett said factoids like those are just the tip of the iceberg for those who choose to read a copy.

“We just have all of these great things that a lot of people throughout history didn’t have,” Jett said. “Even kings didn’t have the luxuries that we have today and I think it’s really great to learn about this stuff and know just how great our lives are now.”