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The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them)
 
 
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The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them) [Paperback]

Peter Sagal (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews) |
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Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2008

Somewhere, somebody is having more fun than you are.

Orso everyone believes. Peter Sagal, a mild-mannered, Harvard-educated radio host—the man who puts the second "l" in "vanilla"—decided to find out if it's true. From strip clubs to gambling halls to swingers clubs to porn sets and back to the strip clubs (but only because he left his glasses there), Sagal explores what the sinful folk do, how much they pay for the privilege, and how exactly they got those funny red marks.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

NPR host Sagal (Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me) offers a hilarious, harmlessly prurient look at the banality of regular people's strange and wicked pleasures. In the wake of the late-1990s obsession with other people's fun, notes Sagal, the hoi polloi have pursued their own indulgences, such as sex joints, swinging couples' clubs, gambling and pornography. He describes the three necessary elements of vice that distinguish it from sin and give it that irresistible frisson: social disapprobation, actual pleasure and shame. A buttoned-up journalist and family man, Sagal visits the respective dens of inequity, interviewing the principals in the name of research while preserving his academic irony, e.g., during the shooting of a hardcore porn sequence for Spice TV, he remarks of the actors: I began to appreciate how very well Evan and Kelly did their work. Indeed, the dedicated hedonists, such as the regular joe habitués of San Francisco's Power Exchange or the normal-seeming couples who frequent the Swinger's Shack, face the same problems of meeting supplies, logistics, expense versus income, and time management as does any warehouse foreman. Sagal is a terrific, lively writer, and while some of his segments are repetitive and stretched, he is admirable in humanizing the participants. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Peter Sagal is the host of the Peabody Award-winning NPR™ news quiz Wait Wait . . . Don't Tell Me!™ He is a playwright, a screenwriter, a commentator on NPR's All Things Considered, a onetime extra in a Michael Jackson music video, and a regular contributor to "The Funny Pages" in the New York Times Magazine. Sagal lives near Chicago with his wife and three daughters.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: It Books; Reprint edition (October 7, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060843837
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060843830
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #588,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
While this is nominally a book about vices, it is really a book about virtues, and it is an effective one: there are no lectures, no finger wagging a la Bill Bennett, no holier than thou passages. The chapter on lying savages those who bald face lie, taking apart Holocost deniers and Kerry defamers and both presidents Clinton and Bush. The one on consumption is a thoughtful review of evolutionary biology (we are wired to display the fruits of our wealth; it helps with a female finding a mate that will ensure the genes get passed on; who knew:waste is sexy) and how this wiring--- once useful --- now makes us do nutty stuff , like paying millions for celeb musicians to play at sweet sixteen parties. The chapter on swinging reminds us---as with many of the vices---that, as Shaw remarked, there are two great tragadies---one not to get your hearts desire , the other to get it. Sagal reminds us, in the end, not to get too worked up over what we think we don't have that others do, to be grateful for the small things, and to understand that a life without tempting vices is a life well worth living
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22 of 25 people found the following review helpful
As fun as its title suggests October 25, 2007
Format:Hardcover
Peter Sagal is the whip-smart host of NPR's news quiz show Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fans of the program will be delighted to learn that Sagal is also now the author of a deliciously titled (and even more deliciously subtitled) exploration of iniquity: The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (And How to Do Them). The book is as fun as its title suggests.

Sagal discusses a different vice in each of the book's seven chapters--though sex looms as the dominant theme of three of them--dropping keen observations while describing his research into the subject at hand. For his first chapter, for example, on swinging, Sagal and his wife Beth observed the goings-on at a weekly swinger's party. He describes the logistics of the operation--the uses to which the various rooms of the place were put--while trying to understand the nature of the Lifestyle: becoming emotionally attached to the people you have sex with is not the done thing, for example, yet people who are in it only for the sex are apparently frowned on as well. In the end Sagal finds that he is not cut out for swinging himself:

"We are told, via their occasional interviews in the press, that swingers or Lifestylers or whatever are no different from you and me...they meet up to socialize, talk, drink, and dance with their good friends, old and new. And then they have sex with them. Which makes me stop, and consider the various good friends my wife and I have, and then consider how it would be if one of our suburban dinner parties ended with us removing our clothes and performing sexual acts, and I have to put my head between my knees and take deep breaths."

Elsewhere in the book Sagal writes about strip clubs and pornography. For the latter chapter he visits the set of a live, call-in sex show. (The stars of the show perform whatever acts their caller prescribes while a roomful of camera operators and lighting guys and directors watch, rather bored, from behind a thick glass partition.) Rounding out the book are chapters on gambling, eating, conspicuous consumption, and lying.

Sagal is a charming and funny guide through these particular avenues of sin. Maybe if you've done the things he describes--the $500-a-pull slot machines and 24-course dinners (that leave you hungry for Jack-in-the-Box), lap-dancing and lying and live broadcast sex--you'll find the book humdrum. For the rest of us armchair sinners it's pure pleasure.

-- Debra Hamel
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
While the subtitle is a bit misleading (it really should be "Very Naughty Things (and why you shouldn't REALLY want to do them after all)", this book is enormously fun, especially - but not only - for those already familiar with Sagal's sarcastic wit and extraordinary verbal dexterity. He's sort of a perverse, Ivy League version of Milo leading us through the Phantom Tollbooth to the Lands Beyond Expectations. You couldn't ask for a better guide, especially since he lets you feel like it's really okay to be missing out on the swingers clubs, strip joints, casinos, etc.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
funny!
Funny--REALLY funny Peter Sagal's wit makes the book unstoppable. Be prepared for some quite explicit discussions of sex, along with food, gambling, and such indulgences. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Charles Hagan
I honestly expected more from Mr. Segel
Please understand that I had difficulty getting past the first 50 pages of this book so this is an incomplete review, as it were, but I think it's still worth reading... Read more
Published 6 months ago by RTBRAND1
Peeping in on those who indulge
Peter Sagal, the avuncular voice of NPR's "Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!" is the perfect person to talk about the twisted world of naughty behavior. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Jean E. Pouliot
Not Much Reason To Read
I agree with other reviewers stating the following: "Pretentious", "Peter Sasgal amuses himself more than he does the reader", "snarky", "flip", "snide" and "the writing is marred... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mr. Ralph J. Secoy
Deceptive Title
Sagal's writing has a unique style. The transitions are great and he makes reference to a number of things allowing the book to come full circle. Read more
Published 22 months ago by lameduckdown
What the Sinful People are up to
The vice beat is of perennial interest to writers and reporters, precisely because it's of such massive interest to readers. Read more
Published on December 5, 2009 by Andrew C Wheeler
Very Naughty Book from a Very Funny Man
Peter Sagal must have the best job in the world: host of NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and the ability to indulge himself in all kinds of activities -- for research, mind you... Read more
Published on April 21, 2009 by M. Maynard
Witty but not consitently well done
Peter Sagal is, of course, a very smart and witty talker and he writes as well as he speaks. The book begins rather well - funny and clever - but then degenerates into what... Read more
Published on March 19, 2009 by K. Putnam
Great Read!
Such an interesting, easy read. Good and fun. One of the better books I've read on random social study information.
Published on March 13, 2009 by C. Tarles
Clever, witty and likely to cause you to stay up all night reading.
Peter Sagal is among the most entertaining personalities on radio today. His book will not disappoint. Read more
Published on January 14, 2009 by Kiran Shyama
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Las Vegas, New York, Gail Palmer, Spice Live, Gorgeous George, Wings of Justice, Café Flesh, Nina Hartley, Evan Stone, Steve Wynn, Kelly Kline, Anthony Curtis, John Kerry, Hot Summer, Mel Gibson, Olympic Gardens, Spice Hotel, Los Angeles, Bert Padell, Jenna Jameson, Atlantic City, Bill Bennett, New Orleans, Miss Lewinsky, Chef Achatz
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