Customer Reviews

The World's Best Sex Writing 2005

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This book has a cover that is very misleading. A picture of a sexy woman posing with sexy legs leads reader to believe that this is some sort of erotica that they can enjoy reading in the dark. Unfortunately it is not (in a good way). The book is more like a documentary about sexual research and varius interviews and commentaries published in newspapers about sexualy active people. Some segments are very good such as "Call Girl" about the daily life of a prostitute from her perspective. Another one that was higly insightful was the research performed at truck stops and the sex-drug comunities that follows it. However I had to use a paper to hide the cover of this book just to read it outside the house just because it misleads people to think that this is a "naughty" book which it isn't.

A widely varied collection of articles concerning our frequently perverse human sex practices. But it is always interesting.

If you've ever done any public speaking, you know that some of the best advice you can get is to open with a joke. You put both the audience and yourself at ease before diving into the weightier points.

Editor Mitzi Szereto seems to have followed that advice in compiling The World's Best Sex Writing 2005. This non-fiction anthology opens with a humorous article. "The Big Ooooooohh!"--if I have to tell you what it's about, you really need to read it--had me laughing hard enough to warrant a dirty look from the cat whose midnight bath I'd so rudely disrupted.

But then the content turns serious as we delve into "Andrea Dworkin, 1946-2005" and "The Sex Files." Antipornography feminism and the lingering legal ramifications of homosexuality represent a major point shift away from the opening article. Then we move on to political interference in scientific research on sexuality and the advent of female genital "plastic surgery." Weightier points indeed!

Like Szereto's previous editorial offering, Wicked: Sexy Tales of Legendary Lovers (see my review in issue 3.11), this collection has something to suit every taste and runs the gamut from humorous to horrifying.

Other reviewers have--and probably will--include the following proviso, but it bears repeating nonetheless. The World's Best Sex Writing 2005 is not pornography. It's not even erotica, although some of the memoirs test that theory. It is, however, a frank and sometime profane discussion of human sexuality.

Will you be offended at least once by the time you're done reading? No doubt. (I know I had to grit my teeth through some of the articles.) Sex is, after all, a delicate subject with countless variations of perception. What I find amusing, you might find obscene, and vice versa.

However, if you stick it out (so to speak) and read every article, you stand a far better chance of being educated, enlightened, and entertained.

Just don't expect to be coddled. The language used is often graphic. Little is left to the imagination. If you're offended by such things, don't read the book.

In fact, you probably shouldn't be reading this review. Now that I've brought the book to your attention, you might feel compelled to read it, if only for curiosity's sake.