Dear Ruth,
I would be delighted to do so, and extend the list to other relevant readings, as well. Most selections are available at Venez tels quels (5427 St-Laurent) or online at www.goodvibes.com or www.amazon.com. Get out your scissors kids, this is a clip and save!
General sex guide: The Good Vibrations Guide to Sex by Cathy Winks and Anne Semans. If you buy one sex guide, make it this. As the cover states, it's "the most complete sex manual ever written." It is also illustrated by Phoebe Gloeckner (www.ravenblond.com), whose graphic novels are incredible.
The penis: A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis by David M. Friedman. Crammed full of information from a mainly Western perspective, perfect for both carnal cocktail party anecdotes and a deeper understanding of this "deified" and "demonized" appendage.
The vagina: Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier. Some might be off-put by Angier's propensity to pun and analogize everything (and indeed, it can fray at the nerves), but she has a way of discussing the female form that makes you feel wise and whimsical, all at once.
Anal sex: Dr. Jack Morin still leads the fudge pack with his Anal Pleasure & Health. By the way, August is anal sex month. No, I'm not kidding.
Etiquette: A few sexual etiquette guides are making the rounds lately, but my preferred is still Drew Campbell's The Bride Wore Black Leather… And He Looked Fabulous! Why? Because it very helpfully deals with genuine social graces, and isn't just a quippy tome written by NYC party girls in Pucci-patterned wrap dresses and kitten heels.
Sex trade, history: Whores in History by Nickie Roberts. The fact that this fascinating, positive book is out of print (though available at Amazon.com), yet Pretty Woman, which perpetuates the most insidious myths about prostitution, is still a popular rental and not in an ironic way, says so much about the way we need to see prostitutes. If you want the truth, this is the book for you.
Sex trade, biography: Outlaw: The Lives and Careers of John Rechy. Charles Casillo does a great job documenting this strutting '50s physique mag peacock and author of the Ulysses-like underground pro memoir City of Night. Rechy's conceit becomes nearly intolerable towards the end, but if all you know of hoods and hustlers is the Cross and the Switchblade by Rev. David Wilkerson, this will be a real trip.
Sex trade, autobiography: Strip City by Lily Burana. The gods created Lily Burana just for me: a stripper who's written for Maximum Rock 'n' Roll and The New York Times Book Review.
The fine tradition of French perversion: Move over, Marquis de Sade, Catherine Millet's my new hero of sexcess with her Sexual Life of Catherine M. The Smart have gone to a lot of trouble to describe this book as "not porn" so as not to have it improperly ranked, but to me, it is porn. Really, really, really fucking hot porn at that.
Sex-positive feminist theory: Talk Dirty to Me by Sallie Tisdale. A great introduction to the current sex-positive thinking.
Magazine: Ordinarily I cringe at callow attempts at subverting traditional porn because they are made by young people who seem to think nobody thought of doing it before them, and there's nothing less subversive than not knowing your history. One of my fantasies is an indie rock boy stripclub, where a corduroy cutie comes out for his third song, lays out a plaid sleeping bag, and takes it off to "Bottle of Fur" by Urge Overkill. See this in print in Sweet Action, edited by Robin Adams and Nicole Taggart.
