On some level, the premise of this book really depresses me. I'm not saying it's wrong, or unnecessary; I'm saying it's really sad that something like this is necessary. This book is excellent for the task; it covers essentially all the bases and presents it in a gentle way to try and ease the easily scared into it. I can't even fairly criticize that it's aimed too much at bedroom play over lifestyle; there's no good way they could have lingered on that without ruining the whole approach. It's also balanced by the letters.
I mentioned last post, every chapter has a letter; the authors asked their friends, family and acquaintances to write a "letter you'll never send" - to their family, their coworkers, or whoever. In a lot of ways, they were far more "real" than the sections written by the actual authors. The author sections are very informative, but the letters really let you connect with some of these people... And they were far less gentle with the readers. All in all it's a well-balanced approach.
Speaking of the approach... This book's biggest fault is easily the extreme lengths it goes to to ease people into it. It is so paranoid about possibly scaring anyone off that the people who aren't scared will have trouble getting to the parts that are actually important.
So to summarize...
The Good:
- Pretty comprehensive; a lot of information
- Very personal and easy to read
- Applicable to a wide audience
The Bad:
- Slow to start
- Slanted away from lifestyle kinksters
- Possibly too little too late?
- Sortof aimed at a niche and unfortunate premise
The Conclusion:
Definitely something I'd recommend... But it's not perfect.
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