Lots of people can screw, or make love, but can you say that you are any good at it? This book, although it was originally published in the early 70's, still has the power to piss people off, showing positions they find objectionable, or an attitude to lovemaking and a partner that they find distasteful.
I work in a library, and many of our copies (I can't say all, because I haven't taken them all out) either end up going missing or are damaged by people cutting out pages they disagree with- or perhaps to put a nicer complexion on it, cutting out the stuff they really want to try. But how many people want to try "rear entry" type things, really?
For the uninitiated, this book discusses, in a frank and sensual manner, how to transform making love from a mere act to a feast of earthly delights. You are urged to pay attention to your partner, to find out what he or she likes, and on different sexual positions you may have not tried before.
The book is broken up into a few main sections- ingredients, appetizers, main courses, and sauces and pickles. Each deals with some aspect of lovemaking. Ingredients covers you and your partner, and the attitude and physical and mental space you bring to the bedroom. Appetizers are things you can do in your lead up to the bedroom, or to start things off once you are there: dancing, tongue baths, strip-teases, and so on.
Main courses is all about making love. Positions, postures, and things to try in bed. Straight up missionary position is the easiest for a man, but this section gives intriguing things to try, and you don't have to be an acrobatic contortionist to try them. Dr. Comfort argues that lovemaking works best when you respect your partner and try to give as much pleasure as you take. Then, sauces and pickles are things you add to the basic main course for spice: clothing, various erotic items such as a horse, a swing, making love in various places, both indoors and out, and so on.
It also discusses why adding another party to what is essentially a two-person affair can lead to more problems than anything else, and speaks frankly once more of erotic toys like ben-wa balls. The book ends with a list of resources and support, along with a index in the back.
This book may be the "Ultimate Revised Edition", but that doesn't mean it's without problems. Whoever edited the book and approved the final version that went to press should be ashamed- some pages are repeated twice! There is no excuse for such sloppiness in a major press house. At least this wasn't like an earlier version I saw, where an internal section repeated twice, making some of the unrepeated pages go missing. Is the idea of sex in our rather puritan society so distasteful that the editor couldn't even read the final edition and correct its mistakes?
Regardless, even if you're not buying or reading this book to share with a partner, but am using it to get ideas for erotic sections in your own writing, it's an invaluable resource. It's like a giant cinnamon bun, studded with raisins of pictures, both photographic and drawn, in full color throughout. This isn't to say that you'll enjoy everything. I have never been drawn to the underarm area in the way that Dr. Comfort is, but everyone has quirks, and I can't say that mine are less strange than his.
Readers will find a wealth of erotic possibilities in between these pages, and may find themselves wishing to try them out, if not with a partner, then in a fantasy at the very least. No matter how you feel about lovemaking, you'll find lots to like, and probably at least one thing that will make you feel turned-off when you think about it. But this is a landmark book, and for that reason alone, I found myself enjoying and thinking about the material in the pages a lot. Highly recommended.
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