UPDATE JANUARY 2023: “The Little Book of Sex” by Anne Hooper is no longer in print. It’s still available for purchase (used) on Amazon. This sex toy review remains as a reference for anyone who’s curious about the book. While you’re here, also check out my BDSM advice and femdom advice.
The Little Book of Sex is a small book intended to teach the basics of how to improve your sex life. The author is Anne Hooper. This sex-help book has 153 pages, and when it says little, it means little: It’s actually seven inches tall and four inches across. This makes it extremely tall with very little width. It can make it difficult to hold the book open comfortably at times, and in some spots, can be difficult to read the words.
Unlike other novels and sex books that usually have about your average “size 10” font, I’m letting you know that the font in this book is slightly smaller than average – it matches up with a size 8 font on my computer screen. I’m comfortable reading that size, but if you have trouble reading small text, this may cause a problem. The book is paperback with glossy, full-color pages. The front cover displays some little colored packages of condoms as well as “The Book of Sex” title on the front. The back talks about the features of the book. Neither of these, including the pictures of the naked people on the inside, are exactly discreet, so you may choose to not read this in public. I actually ended up reading this in a semi-private space on campus though.
The book is filled with quite a few pictures. While this isn’t a problem, I figured it is something worth mentioning. Not all of the pictures are sensual. There are tons of pictures that just seem like random photography stock with an odd caption stuck beneath it. (In fact, some of the captions remind of something I’d write on a report if I wasn’t really trying. For example, on a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger carrying a box of roses, the caption reads “A man’s inner Arnie would not allow him to carry flowers in public. The box in this still from the film Terminator 2 contains a sinister secret.”)
However, about half of the photography is sexual and contains nude people. There are pictures of bare breasts and butts, but never anything that shows the genitals. The pictures usually are about 1/4 of the page and some pages have two pictures of them. They are integrated into the text to sit within the text. All of the pictures (aside from the pictures in the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual sections) are between a man and woman; the man and woman look like your typical models.
This book has a couple of different features that make it easier/more helpful to read. This is good and bad. It’s good because it’s easier to read, but it’s bad because it honestly reminds me of how a college textbook would go about presenting information. The first is that all key points are summarized at the end of each chapter. Another is that all pictures include captions. The third is that all paragraphs are self-contained. Every single paragraph has its own title. Sometimes there are two paragraphs under the title, but for the most part, it’s a singular title with a singular paragraph – which you can imagine gets crowded quickly.
That brings me to another point; The paragraphs are pretty brief. They get the information across in a concise manner. Sometimes, though, it feels like some of the points they make are common-sense points. For example, a paragraph says “Don’t forget to listen. Conversations have two sides, so you’ll need to listen as well as talk. Being a good listener is a simple, but invaluable, asset.”
However, most of the basics are presented here in an easy-to-understand form; it’s just that so many things were actually included that it really ends up being too brief at points. For example, oral sex only gets two pages. Sexual positions gets about ten pages. If you consider that the book also included communication, non-sexual aspects about relationships, and then all of the sexual things, it’s easy to see how they ran out of room. If this were to be turned into a “traditional” book size without the pictures, I’d say that the book would probably only go on for about 50 or 60 pages.
This book was published in 2005. It seems to be a bit behind-the-times, but that’s understandable for five years lag. For example, the book says that women should never take viagra since it’s dangerous. However, doctors are now prescribing viagra to women as well. Under their sex toys information, anal toys were listed as under “Men’s Toys“, and a personal annoyance, but “Fake Tattoos” were listed as S&M Toys which seems a bit farfetched to me. Something it did provide better than other guides though is that, unlike other guides, this one actually includes a three-page guide about medications and what sexual side effects will affect your life.
The writing itself is mostly formal and very focused to the topic without any humor. However, because so many topics are included in this book, it’s hard to get bored because you are always jumping onto other topics. If the book was longer, the writing style might become a problem to read though; it just doesn’t seem to keep you interested in the book. This book feels more like the author is talking “at” you instead of talking “to” you. There isn’t much in the way of personal experience – it’s all relatively spoken about in clinical terms – not exactly the most fun reading to do.
The information contained in this book is beginner-intended. I’d say that it wasn’t really meant for teenagers per se – it seems like it was meant more for adults who’ve never really discussed sex before or adults who only have a basic idea about sex. Anyone who has ever had a good discussion about sex with their partner or enjoys sex on a regular basis probably wouldn’t find much in this book. However, if you both are uncomfortable discussing sex or both don’t try too many adventurous things in your sex life, there’s probably some good topics and discussions in this little book.
The book is split into three parts. Part one is “The Erotic Human”, part two is “Great Lovemaking” and part three is “The Further Reaches of Sex”. After that, there’s a glossary of common terms and an index to make it easy to look for a specific topic that you are wishing to learn about. The only part that *really* focuses on sex is the second part – the two are just outliers.
Part one, “The Erotic Human”, includes all of the “basics” before sex ever happens. This part spends quite a bit of time discussing communication (not sexual – just general) and how to do it well. There’s a small bit on massages and how to kiss (a page), how to make your bedroom sexy, what turns him/her on, and what men and women expect from their sex lives (which actually covers more pages than I thought it would. About ten put together. Most of it is just fluff though.). It also includes a couple of pages about how to make your first time having sex together special, an anatomy lesson in both males and females, how multiple orgasms (and the orgasmic cycle) work, as well as how to train yourself to be multi-orgasmic. The chapter ends with one page on safe sex information (it’s severely lacking in information.)
Part two, “Great Lovemaking”, starts off with positions. I enjoyed this position guide because it was relatively thorough. Each position includes a picture showing the position, text about where the position came from, good points of the position, bad points of the position, and how to vary the sensation. That portion is about twelve pages. After that, we get information on sensual massage including genital sensual massage. It concerns me that nothing was mentioned about not getting oil-based lubricant inside of the vagina. From there you get two pages on masturbation and two pages on oral sex. Two pages of bondage are then included.
After that, there’s a small section on gay sex – but not very useful stuff if you’re actually gay. Instead, it’s all information about “What does it mean to be gay?” and How to tell your parents. Nothing really about how sex would change for you. This section is larger than the section about oral sex – this section is 14 pages long.
In part three, “The Further Reaches of Sex”, we jump right into learning about sex toys with a couple of pages about them. Straight after that, there’s a couple of pages showing “Advanced Sexual Positions” – not with as much detail as before, but just the picture and text. The rest of the chapter includes how to have anal sex, fetishes, dangerous sex, crossdressing, why you might be having sexual problems in bed, how to fix those problems without a therapist, explanations of the phases in life that men/women go through and how it affects sexuality, and a list of medications and how they might affect your sexuality.
The book, by itself, isn’t horrible. But it isn’t great either. It doesn’t help that I ended up reading “SuperHotSex” right after this book, and I honestly have to say that I’d definitely recommend SuperHotSex more than This Little Book of Sex. The Little Book of Sex has a lot of information but that’s where it goes wrong – because it tried to include so much, there isn’t much information about anything. Anything that they do say about the topics really seems to be common sense for the most part. As a small, general overview guide, it’s a good book, but for everything the book explains, there’s another more in-depth book that would do it much better.
