In Praise of Sex Manuals

by Maureen

Maybe they’re not something you’d want your mother to find in your room. Maybe they’re not something you’d display on the coffee table. Maybe they’re not even something you’d flip through to brainstorm with the new BF. (uh, that’s “boyfriend,” not “best friend.” Unless you’ve got the best of both worlds.)

But…they should be something of a reference library for the bedroom. “They” being sex books. Things get boring. Things get quiet. Thing may even get confusing. You need somewhere to turn. Em & Lo, the patron saints of sex, have a new book for the collection, Sex: How to Do Everything. Here, from a recent Guardian article, they offer a few solid reasons to invest in a dirty tome or two:

“We live in a culture that teaches women how to be sexy but not how to have good sex,” says [Lorelai] Sharkey. “The whole mainstreaming of porn means that a lot of young women see sex as a performance, not as an experience that you share with another person that feels good for both of you.”

“Learning about sex should be fun,” [Emma] Taylor says firmly. “If your hobby was gardening, you wouldn’t see anything odd about buying a book that would teach you how to be a better gardener, so if you like sex why wouldn’t you buy a book about it?”

Persuasive, aren’t they? And with such a striking cover, it might just earn coffee-table-book status. (And with a sticker price under $30, why not check it out?)