Intro Post

Welcome!

Tell us a bit about yourself by commenting on this topic! We'd love to know your favorite books on alternative sexuality and why you love 'em so much.

The short on me is... 24, bi (actually more accurately described as pansexual), genderfluid (biologically female), kinky, freaky, geeky, smart urban weirdo who grew up a country gal. You could also throw the disabled label on there, but even though it's quite a part of my life, it's not a large part of my identity. Oh, and C4bl3Fl4m3? That's read "CableFlame", for those of you that don't speak 1337 ("leet").

Personally, I love Deviant Desires by Katharine Gates because it studies so many different fascinating fetishes. It also gets inside of the heads of the people who enjoy these fetishes to help the reader understand WHAT it is about this fetish that's so erotic.

I'm also a big fan of The Ethical Slut, Redefining Our Relationships, fetish sex: an erotic guide for couples, big, big love and any of the Toybag Guides but especially Midori's toybag guide to foot and shoe worship (and I'm not even a foot/shoe fetishist!). I've recently read speaking sex to power and whereas I didn't agree on EVERYTHING that Pat/Patrick said, I really enjoyed it. It's intellectual discussion that never goes academic in a bad way on you. It's very accessible because of that (unlike female masculinity or harmful to minors, which I've tried to read before because I was *very* interested in the topic, but was so obtuse, I couldn't get through it).

When it comes to erotica, I love herotica the original and leather daddy and the femme.

...and you? :-)

I just wanted to note with respect to Harmful to Minors, it's not a book on alternative sexuality so much as it is a book about hysteria and how politics plays into hysterical reactivity to explosive issues. I found it extremely engrossing!

Yeah, I know it's not a book on alternative sexuality. Human sexuality in all forms is my major academic interest and that's why I was (trying) to read it. It's written way too much in academic speak. And I'm no dumb chicken either. But I should be able to concentrate on the content of a book, not on "translating" the writing into non-academic English. It's such a shame that it's written in such an obtuse manner. I would LOVE to read a book on the topic. I'm always trying to prove to people how children don't need "protecting" from sexuality.

Obviously, tastes differ, but I found it very engaging and readable.

C4bi - sorry I am new to this - is this message directed to me (as a new member). If so it is very nice to be so welcomed and I will respond accordingly. If not - sorry to break into a thread! :-)

This is directed at all new members. All new members are encouraged to introduce themselves in this thread and tell us about yourself and about some of your favorite "alternative sexuality" books.

CableFlame

Ok so here goes. I am probably old enough to be a grand dad to some of you - at 68. I realised that I was into BDSM when I was about 11 (not that I would have known the term). I have had 4 long term relationships 2 of which have been to sm'ers, and I am married to the second. It is difficult to see if you get on with your partner in terms of sharing interests and have the tolerance that tends to go with bdsm, what can actually go wrong?
I have been a university lecturer but took early retirement to do boat building and, more recently, period house restoration. I lane swim so am quite fit.
I am interested in co-operatives and at one time taught Democratic Management. Interested in politics and scared of global warming. We have novels, classics (I inherited my fathers library) crime. A total of about 1500 books, not all of which are catalogued. We are currently looking for somewhere new to live - so there must be room for the books!
On sm I am top switch, and seem to be switched quite a bit these days. We wrinkleys don't pull the chicks so well.
On books, not a huge collection of alternative, Never Mind the Roses - Give Me the Thorns, The Topping , and Bottoming Books, are favourites, some pulp, including Anne Rice's - Beauty series. I will be interested in some of the books on your all lists to complete my education. Oh - and I try (as I suppose we all do) try to work out why I have this mad sexuality and do a bit of writing - I did a submission to the UK Governments commission on extreme pornography, and have a review in the pipeline.
I hope thats enough to be going on with. Best to you all.

Looks like my writing fits in here! My "kinks" all come out in my stories. I find that writing about them opens up my mind to more wild possibilities.

I have all the classics....Screw the Roses, Beauty series by Anne Rice, The John Q Letters.....many more.

I would invite you to read some of my books. They are on my site, or you can find them at Lulu.

(Not trying to blatantly advertise...just introduce who I am.)

Glad to be at this site.

Crimson de la Voire

When I was 23 I met two different older women.Now that Im 45,I am very much still sexually attracted to busty,full figured older women.While growing up in Lorain,I loved buying PLAYBOY magazine,especially the 1980s decade because it featured full figured models before the onset of the bikini wax.Personally,the sight of a beautiful mound of female pubic hair is a delicious sensual petits-fours for my sexual appetite.

Hi, I'm a 41yo BiWF BBW

I think my favorite books are:
Macho Sluts by Pat Califia
Sex Is Not A Natural Act by Leonore Tiefer
Dr Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation by Olivia Judson
The Spider Garden by Michael Manning
The Bottoming Book and The Topping Book by Dossie Easton and Catherine A. Liszt
Family Jewels by Hardy Haberman

Hi all, I'm 21-year-old bisexual female. Currently I'm in a relationship with a (much older) dominant man, my third dominant since I discovered the lifestyle when I was 17. I'm not too much into the titles and trappings of the BDSM scene, but I do like fiction books with D/s undercurrents. Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty series and Laura Antoniou's Marketplace series are great favorites of mine! I'm glad I found this group!

i love getting lost in stories, so my faves are fiction rather than non-fiction:

Blue of Noon by Georges Bataille

Lofting by Alma Marceau

The Image by Jean de Berg

Blue: The Color of Desire by Patrick Linney

A Journey Around a Darker Sun by Simon Lowrie

Writing is interesting in SM, it is I suppose masturbatory - least mine is and so virtually unpublishable. (Crimson - I am sure this does not apply to your writing) I once wrote a series of stories with a friend of mine. I was to do 4 and so was she - each story was about a male and female top and bottom. They were to be jumbled together so that the reader would have to guess who wrote what. I think we only ever did 4 stories between us and it was pretty obvious who wrote what! She had some wild ideas but would never enact any of them herself - C'est la vie say the old folk, just goes to show you never can tell.

I'm a gay-male identified, genderqueer bottom. I also write. Anthologies containing my stories are tagged "contributor" in my library.

My favorite fiction books are Mr. Benson and The Leather Daddy and the Femme. My favorite non-fiction books are Mark Thompson's Leatherfolk, which has a wonderful description of someone doing s/m at Kinsey's house, and Thomas S. Weinberg's S&M

Hey, Chris! Welcome, and thanks for joining :)

The Leather Daddy and the Femme - HOT choice. I love the fact that Carol Queen really gets into the meat of the queering of the Femme's gender ID, and shows the inner turmoil - but ultimate acceptance - by the OG Leather Daddy.

(I just cut a big chunk because it probably belongs more on the "academics" thread, lol)

I've recently picked up a slew of the Marquis de Sade's work; can't wait to get into it! Have you read any?

16: No. I never read s/m where women are on the bottom. I almost never read erotica with women in it at all. Not a political statement, just a personal choice.

Did you read the later, longer version of The Leather Daddy and the Femme? I haven't gotten to it yet and was wondering how it compares to the original.

Hi everyone. I'm bi (maybe leaning towards gay), submissive/bottom, and a woman. I realized I was kinky a year or two ago, and am just now discovering the bdsm community.

Long ago I learned from browsing Sex Toys 101 that it's okay to fantasize about rape (whoa!) And everything's gotten awesomer from there. I really like The New Bottoming Book, and for erotica Master/slave, edited by N. T. Morley.

Only joined today and found this group by accident. I was quite disappointed how few posts there are. I was hoping to have some intelligent conversation about the topic. I welcome personal messages on most things and I am a good correspondent. If you look at my posts you will get an idea of what I like but if you shy and want to correspond on a personal basis please write. All mails will be answered.

I see at least 20 new members have joined this group since I did in Nov 2009. None have entered anything in this post. How about an introduction?

As you see, I missed this thread, too!

My interest in alternative sexuality relates to my interest in erotic literature and erotica. Literature in particular, and here I include written and drawn pornography (which term I find almost useless except as an indicator of the moral or educational stance of those who use it!).

I find it interesting to observe the changes in style and content of erotic literature over the centuries of its existence, but there is one specific aspect of the subject that stands out in my interest, that of the subtleties of dominance and submission between partners in consensual sex. My personal orientation as a male is towards females, and this gives me a strong interest in heterosexual relationships and in female homosexual relationships. The use of (consensual) pain in relationships is a further narrowing of this field that is of particular interest.

Hi all! I'm a 23 year old, bi (toward the gay end of the spectrum), submissive, poly chick. I found this group after adding The Ethical Slut and got super-excited to discover there are other nerdy kinksters out there! Current faves are Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships, The Bottoming Book, Coming to Power and Real Live Nude Girl. I love to geek out and absorb as much information about a subject as possible, so if anybody has any recommendations for me, I'd be much obliged. I love non-fiction and memoirs, and current interests include BDSM, polyamory, LGBT, and sex work. I'll read just about anything though, because I am too curious for my own good:) Glad to have found this group!

Welcome to the group, charliemarie. I hope you can feel active here.

As to reading suggestions, the sexuality area is one that is particularly fraught by the 'one person's 'yummy' is often another's 'yeuck'!' phenomenon. My research - see my library - has involved analyzing large numbers of books, and I try hard to catagorize material using LT reviews, mostly copied to Amazon UK. Another approach I use involves using LT tagging - for instance dividing books into narrow areas such as 'spanking' and 'erotic art' rather than the broad-brush approach that puts everything thus related under 'erotica'. It's hard work - in two senses - but sites such as Amazon (even LT) do not serve the field very well. Too often, the only indicator of relevance to a particular interest is a book's title!

It's one of the interesting characteristics of the erotic field that 'non-fiction' can be as arousing as 'fiction', and therefore subject to the same vagaries of taste.

Best of luck in your peregrination!

I have not yet found any books that blow me away in this area. I think I am not going to go in a lot of detail about my interests at the moment but if you are on fetlife send me a PM and I will send you my handle. (Maybe we should start an LT outpost there!)

My personal favorite remains Story of O by Pauline Reage. Obviously intense and erotic, but taught me the integrity of total commitment (dominant or submissive), the courage it takes to become oneself and that power is a complex and magical force available to both top and bottom. It is not simply the affirmation of yin and yang but also having the ability to exist in the sweet, hot tension of paradox.

Hello!

I identify as a hetero, submissive female (though I do enjoy toying with gender norms it's not noticable most of the time). I'm also really into my academia and am going to be published as the co-author of a chapter of a book looking at the representation of BDSM in the media, the book will probably be off to the printers in September/October time.

I haven't really read the fiction in the area, being more online based for that aspect of my SM reading/viewing. I would be very interested in reading some Georges Bataille though, and of course The Story of O.

I have however covered some non-fiction which appeals to my studies, my favourite being Sadomasochism: Powerful Pleasures (the co-author is Charles Moser, he just doesn't show on there). I also found The Sexual Life of Catherine M. really fascinating. It really blows the lid off some of the conventional views on sexuality. Another favourite is Dances with Werewolves by Niki Flynn, which is great for anyone interested in how people end up getting into the BDSM pornography scene, coming out to oneself as being into spanking (it's not really a specific fetish of mine, but it's a wonderful account nonetheless) and would be a great read for anyone that just likes corporal punishment.

Hi there,
Just joined LibraryThing about a week ago, came over from Goodreads, am slowly finding my way around, and stumbled onto this group.
I like my books to have good writing, interesting characters and a good plot. My favorite authors so far would be Cherise Sinclair's (liked Master of the Mountain a lot) and Kitty Thomas (Guilty Pleasures for example).
There does not seem to be a lot of activity in this group?
Well, see you around maybe, happy reading in the meantime!

Favorite erotic literature is Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille. Also, the complete works of Le Marquis de Sade. I constantly search for something that can compare and never come close. I search for well written real literature that is unusual, books that are brilliant, beautiful, shockingly scandalous, sexy, dirty, etc. For example, 50 shades of Grey wouldn't make my list because while it is erotic and I enjoyed it, its also trash and poorly written. I am looking for really good books, the kind that make you go "wow! This is real literary genius and at the same time being of an erotic nature. Any suggestions? Read the beauty trilogy and while I enjoyed it, and I sure got off a lot while reading it, it doesn't count as literature by a long shot. See where I am going with this? http://www.librarything.com/topic/3943#

>28 Gazzed: For a 21st century work, I enjoyed Lofting by Alma Marceau. You might also try Pierre Louÿs, such as The She Devils.