Product Description

Porn is more mainstream than ever—witness recent bestsellers by Jenna Jameson, Traci Lords, The Vivid Girls, and Pamela Anderson. Continuing this fine tradition is The Big Book of Porn—a friendly, funny celebration of adult movies. Chapters include: - Know Your Classics: The 25 most important adult films. - Great Moments in Porn History: From the first stag movie to the invention of the VCR. - The Pantheon of Porn: These mini-bios of mega-stars like Seka and Ron Jeremy are filled with surprising trivia. - It's a Porn World, After All: Adult movies from Canada, Japan, even Afghanistan. - Make Your Own Porno: All you need is a video camera, a willing partner, and these simple pointers ("Tell a story," "Start with a bang," "Parody a real film title"). Best of all, The Big Book of Porn is illustrated with classic posters, stills, and production shots from the smutty '70s to the present day. Provocative, authoritative, and laugh-out-loud funny, The Big Book of Porn is a proud celebration of history's most scandalous art form.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90821 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781594740404
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
More loving than smutty, this riff on the glory of dirty movies has more double entendres than an X-rated film, but charms with its sincerity. Firsttime author Grahame-Smith first gives a chronology of the porn industry, mentioning nude photography of the early 1900s before going into the Hays Code film regulations of 1930, and then into porn's heyday in the 1970s. Once the history lesson is complete, the author veers into extensive lists of his favorite "classic" films, which he categorizes as featuring actors and actresses without tattoos, but with plenty of body hair. He rhapsodizes about the luscious quality of porn stars from the Debbie Does Dallas era, but gives the current crop of vixens their due, especially those clever enough to parlay their profession into mini-empires of sex toys and Web sites. Also covered in this compact but edifying volume are common terms, fetish videos, international porn and even an ode to the old, smut-drenched Times Square. Lively and entertaining, with a sprinkling of raunchy photos, Grahame-Smith's valentine to his favorite art form is a must for any bookshelf that also holds Flesh Gordon and Lust of the Mohicans. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Seth Grahame-Smith lives with his incredibly tolerant wife in Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

If Cliff's Notes gave a crash course on porn...
Remember when you used to ride the bus to school and there was that one tough kid who sat in the back seat who was wise beyond his years?
He was the go-to guy when you wanted to know about where to buy fireworks, what beer tasted like, and most importantly: what does "S-E-X" mean? You could ask him anything, and though he may chide you a bit, you'll get your answers.

Author Seth Grahame-Smith is THAT guy.

The Big Book of Porn has the answers to all those questions you were too lazy to search the internet to find, and too embarassed to ask your friends at the poker game. With a sharp and humorous slant to his writing, Grahame-Smith plows through the decades to make the Big Book of Porn an overview that's not only informative, but laugh out loud funny.

The Big Book of Porn isn't the end-all, be-all for the history of porn, but if you want a crash course in what was, is, and will be, it's a must-read primer. Before you know it, you'll be the tough kid everyone is coming to for answers.

I met my wife reading this book!
There she was, sitting just beyond the creamer
counter at Starbucks and she was reading the exact same page!?!
It was kismet. We clicked immediately.

I'm a porn history buff, but I had never known
some of these amazing facts and true stories!
Natalie loves the pictures and the do-it-yourself section.

The book is written with a great deal of humor, having
some fun with what is - too often - a very drab topic.
Great interviews, brilliant insights by the author,
and excellent descriptions consistantly make this
book an everyday read for this critic.

One word of advice though:
DO NOT BORROW THIS BOOK FROM A FRIEND.
Go out there and buy your own! It's a better idea!

Oh...and by "clicked"? I meant had sex with each other.

A thorough and fun examination of porn history
The Big Book of Porn lives up to its subtitle--it is a penetrating look at the world of dirty movies. It is a glossy, high-quality paperback with screenshots, actor portraits, vintage advertising posters, and glittery sidebars. Publisher Quirk Books has been known to release some wacky joke books in the past, but this thorough examination of a hobby with more viewers than sporting events (yes, it's true) is well worth the $20 cover price and a place on your history/anthropology bookshelf.

The book opens with a timeline of the invention of still and motion pictures, the ratings administered by the MPAA, the history of obscenity rulings by the Supreme Court, and the evolution of the stag film, peep show, dirty movie theater, and home video. The author is thorough in his examination of history, from the printing press to dime store novels to VHS to the Internet and on to...virtual reality? Grahams-Smith alleges that all the high-falutin' academic research in virtual reality is founded in a desire to invent the Holy Grail of porn. He decries our prudishness about "wardrobe malfunctions" and celebrates the mainstream influence of Madonna, men's magazine Maxim, and the rise of S&M-inspired fashion.

For anyone looking to advance their porn education, the author has a list of 20 all-time classics (Taboo, The Opening of Misty Beethoven, Insatiable, Alice in Wonderland, and more). The list explores the cultural and cinematic significance of each entry. Other lists include five modern classics and the two weirdest classics of all time (my lips are sealed, so pick up the book to find out the titles). The top list of leading ladies is impenetrable (who can argue with Annette Haven at #1?). Sidebars explore the magic formula for determining your porn name, the classic crossover actors, the international perspective, 20 sacred porn movie rules, and who's who in upcoming stars. Includes a glossary.