At first glance The Sex Bible by Susan Crain Bakos looks like a coffe table book. It has a large format with an arresting picture on the front that emphasises the fact that it is about sex … and may be illustrated throughout!
So I was a little sceptical as I started reading but the text was punchy with lots of informative facts about various studies and techniques. I thought that I would be disappointed but surprisingly it whetted my appetite to read more. I was glad of the author’s experience and that she added her personal endorsement and comments along the way. I also liked the quotes from other authorities that made points and gave opinions to keep you intellectually engaged. As a book to be picked up and encourage the average person to look deeper and wider I think it works very well.
The photographs are large, soft and glossy and far too posed for my liking – I got a little annoyed with ‘that look’ page after page. There were no vulvas or penises on show and so they only exemplified the text or techniques very vaguely. However, they do fit in with the concept of a coffee table book but I found they detracted from the quality of the text and I would have prefered more text and far fewer colour plates. This was obviously a marketing pitch and for that I think that it may have worked … a daring present to give someone to put on a side table to be noticed in passing.
The last part was the most interesting, from my point of view, as it covered, in brief, a whole range of advanced sex techniques and positions and demystified a lot of the sacred and mystic sexual practises. I think that these have much to teach us ‘average performers,’ if we could only tease out the time consuming commitment and not necessarily essential ritual, etc.. Obviously for serious adherents of sacred sexual practises the ritual and spiritual context is important. However, they all have simple practical applications that can be condensed out of the whole package for the average man in the bedroom. This book was spot on in that respect for me as it simplified the essential ingredients of such practises as Tantra, Karezza and Kabbazah, simultaneous, multiple and whole body orgasms and a whole lot more.
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