The Erotic Bondage Handbook is a book about how to do bondage as written by Jay Wiseman. This book is a regular six inch by nine inch book with 321 pages. It’s a softcover book, and all of the inside is printed with black and white – no color for this one. There are some illustrations included in this book, but the vast, vasty majority is text.
The front of the book shows a stomach tied up in some white rope with the title in plain text. The back of the book is much more discreet with just text on the backside. The cover of the book, coupled with the few illustrations inside of the book, makes me say that you probably should not take this to read in public.
Something worth mentioning is that this is not really a “how-to-do-bondage” book with pictures of bondage ties and how to do them. Instead, this is much more of a “I have a piece of rope, now what the hell do I do with it, and how do I do it safely?” book. Instead of just pretty pictures showing you how to do bondage ties, Jay Wiseman (who, in BDSM circles is known for his love of all things safety) talks about what bondage is, why people would want to do it, how to do it safely, different materials that can be used, and all sorts of things like that. It’s like the “Introduction” section you find in most other bondage ties books – but in much, much more detail.
The book is literally 321 pages of text about bondage – how to do it with rope, cuffs, all types of different mediums. While Wiseman is a decently good writer, he does have a habit of rambling slightly and honestly, with something like this, how could 321 pages on the same subject not get a bit boring? For best results (and to avoid getting so bored you might possibly put the book down), skim through things you already know and read those things that you don’t know or that interest you. I read through the full book, and it really is about a ten hour (or more, I lost count) affair. All of the information is presented informally with his own stories about bondage given throughout the book. In the sides, sometimes, he also includes random quotes that he’s heard his friends say.
The latter-half of the book is all about how to tie certain ties – separated by area on the body. Legs, arms, genitals, etc. All of the tie instructions are basically done in text with descriptions on how to do it – that’s something I wish that would have changed. More illustrations to illustrate the various ties would have made it much, much more easy to follow the ties included in this book. The text worked well, but sometimes it took skimming the text multiple times to understand what could have been shown in pictures relatively well. (Of course, video always wins for instructing with bondage ties.)
The book is organized logically by chapters. If you are more talented with bondage matters, it’s easy to use the table of contents to find the exact chapter you want to learn more about. Some of the chapters have subchapters that organize the information even more specifically.
The book starts with the introductory chapters. This includes the general disclaimer that says he’s not responsible for what you do, why he believes he is experienced enough to write this book, what information that book was written to include, about being tied up and the act of being untied, information about self-bondage, then the regular risk factors and warning signs that should be watched out for during bondage. You might think this would be about ten pages – it’s not – it’s 87 pages long. It really does cover every aspect of introduction and really won’t leave you wondering about anything.
The next part of the book is all about rope. The introduction talks about the different types of rope, the different materials, how to clean your rope, how to make your rope suitable for bondage, how to mark your ends, and how to make your midpoint and other points. It also talks about how to store your rope. Honestly, this section includes anything you’d ever want to know about the “care and feeding” of your rope. From there, we promptly jump into learning about different knots and how to tie them. After you’ve learned about knots, we get to the “meat” of the book with all of the different ties including single-limb bondage, double-limb bondage, spread-eagle bondage, facial bondage (blindfolds, gags, earplugs, earmuffs), breast and genital bondage, arm and leg harnesses, and the hogtie. All of those ties take up about 100 pages of the book. All of the ties are mostly explained through text, but some of them do include some illustrations.
The ties themselves vary from beginner-level to intermediate-level. All of this is floor work – no suspension ties are included. Some of the ties are just basic wrist cuffs, while, as you get further along the tie section, you get harder ties. Each type of tie also includes some resource information at the end of the chapter that allows you to seek out different methods of the same tie.
The last part of the book basically addresses non-rope bondage. It starts off with regular leather restraints including pros and cons of using them. It goes into using handcuffs and the dangers of using those for bondage. From there, Wiseman explores the possibility of using tape. Then we go into chains, locks, and spreader bars.
From there, he covers some special techniques about bondage including one small passage of a variation of behind-the-back bondage used for bottoms who experience discomfort from having their wrists in the regular position. He didn’t state it very um…nicely though. The sentence is “Many bottoms are so large that they cannot bring their wrists together behind their back.” That sentence really should be rewritten – especially considering that this modification would be very useful for those with wrist injuries as well. Not something I’ll be writing a complaint to the author, but it did make me rethink how accepting he’d be of larger women/men.
Overall, the Erotic Bondage Handbook is full of great information that should be read if you are interested in attempting rope bondage. I would not recommend this to someone who has a slight interest – this is much too informative. (Yes, there is such a thing. It will make bondage seem like a lot of work.)
However, if you know you are interested and really want to make sure your bondage is safe and find new ways to make your bondage enjoyable, this is perfect. It will give you all the information you could ever want to know about any type of bondage. Jay Wiseman, while not making the most *exciting* book on the planet, did make one of the most thorough and informative about bondage.
