You guys see me review a ton of books that you can purchase in sex toy stores, but what about those mainstream sex books that you can purchase at your local bookstore? Those deserve reviews too, right? I’m sure that you’ve heard of The Complete Idiot’s Guide series and the For Dummies series, and in this review, I will be comparing their two different books on the topic of sex.
The “Sex for Dummies” book is in the 3rd edition, and it is written by Dr. Ruth Westheimer with Pierre A. Lehu. The book is 408 pages long and includes 29 different chapters (it’s a long book!). The book is completely black and white, and while it includes some clip-art features on the sidebars sometimes, for the most part, is purely text aside from a few anatomical illustrations.
“The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex” book is also in the third edition, and it is written by Dr. Sari Locker. The book is 454 pages long, and aside from the sex position section in the middle of the book, the entire book is in black and white. The sex position section is full-color pictures, though. However, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex” does include pictures throughout the book and other organizational materials. “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex” includes 28 different chapters.
I enjoyed reading through “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex”. The book is certainly long – there’s no arguing that. However, the book doesn’t feel that long. It seems to be a mixture between the fact that there are tons of little sections splitting things up and the fact that you can easily pick and choose what things in the book you want to read. The same thing applies to the “Sex for Dummies” book, but reading through “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex” does seem to go more quickly. As far as I can tell, it’s because there are more small additions to “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex” that break up the monotony of reading.
The content in “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex” is certainly really thorough. There are a lot of chapters. What chapters? Well, there’s Sexuality Today, Sexpectations: Understanding your Sexual Beliefs, Sex With (or without) Love, Sexual Compatibility, Talking about and Initiating Sex, Mirror Mirror On the Wall, His Private Parts, Her Secret Garden, Sexual Response, Pleasuring Yourself, The Seduction, Reach out and Touch Someone, Mouthing Off, Sexual Positions, Pillow Talk, Variety is the Spice of Life, Sexual Fantasies, Sexy Sights and Sounds, Fun with Sex Toys, Swingers and Dominants and Men in Skirts Oh My!, Tantric Sex, Happy to be Gay, Sex During Pregnancy, Sex and Aging, Birth Control, Better Safer than Sorry, These Exams Save Lives, and Overcoming Sexual Problems.
“The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Sex” also contains special sections labeled “Sari Says.” These passages contain little tidbits of information and a quick piece of advice. Another feature I found really enjoyed was “Sextistics” which featured sex related statistics published in various research journals. “Lover’s Lingo” appeared any time we saw a new sex vocabulary word, and contained a few sentence defination of the term. Finally “Keep Your Pants On” sections offered quick warnings presented in an often humorous manner. The book also features eight pages of full color photos of various sex positions in the center.
Amazing Sex really makes it easy to read through the entire book without getting bored, or, if you don’t have the time, you can easily skip over some of the pages. The different added features keep the book interesting, and the color pictures certainly help you read through the book. Dr. Sari writes in a friendly and intelligent manner while still keeping it uplifting and enjoyable to read.
“Sex for Dummies” is a different story. I’m really not sure how I feel about it. Dr. Ruth has some really good points, and the book is well put-together, but it just doesn’t seem to have the same pizazz that “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex” does. In fact, at times, the boyfriend and I actually scoffed at the book, and, if we didn’t know better, we would have been insulted or ashamed of our sexual practices. Dr. Ruth does seem to really be against all forms of alternative sexual practices like cyber sex, kink, or group sex. I’m not sure if it’s her age (she grew up in a different time period; cybersex wasn’t even a possibility!) or if the publishers pushed her onto it, but some of the passages did make us want to stop reading the book right away.
One of those passages was: “Although sex can be a wonderful part of the glue that holds a couple together, pushed to its extremes, sex can just as easily be the storm that tears them apart. Even if both partners willingly enter into the world of “extreme” sex, the odds are that they won’t exit that world together.” This was the preface to the chapter about pornography, cybersex, multiple partners, and other topics. In fact, under the heading “Sex with Multiple Partners”, the first subheading is “The Lure of Adultery”.
Sex for Dummies is divided into five seperate parts: “Getting Ready for Sex”, “Doing it”, “Different Strokes”, “Having a Healthy Sex Life”, and “The Part of Tens.” Getting Ready for Sex covers contraception, courtship, and anatomy. Doing It focuses on techniques and positions. Different Strokes includes oral sex, solo play, same-sex relationships, and sex with disabilities. Having a Healthy Sex Life focuses on of course sexual health, but also includes topics such as educating your children on sexand Sex and the Law. Finally, The Part of Tens is a collection of top ten lists about sex.
Sex for Dummies includes a few special sections in each chapter. These are labeled “Dr. Ruth Says.” They contain Dr. Ruth’s opinions, tips and advice on the topic at hand. Often times they contain words of encouragement to the reader, but sometimes they express Dr. Ruth’s opinion on something. The quote from before is taken from one of the “Dr. Ruth Says” sections. Another one of these passages disscusses if the G-Spot really exists.
In a competition between the two, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex clearly wins – both at first glance-through as well as when you read through the book. I must admit that I’ve never heard of Dr. Sari Locker (The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex’s writer) while I have definitely heard of Dr. Ruth (Sex for Dummies author), but I, overall, enjoyed The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex much more despite that. Dr. Sari writes in a much more open-minded manner with a friendly hint to it while Dr. Ruth’s book does tend to seem more detail-focused. Both include good details, but overall, I liked the presentation, the open-minded writing, and the information in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex much more than the Sex for Dummies book. Thanks to The Complete Idiot’s Guide for providing both books for my The Complete Idiot’s Guide and For Dummies comparison review. Do you want to read any of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to…” books? Coupon code “CIGBlog11” will save you 50% off any order of their regularly priced books. Yes, HALF off!
