The Year In Porn Books (A Slightly Belated Look Back)

2011 saw an exultation of porn-related books, from memoirs to photo books to slim volumes of erotica and intrigue. True professionals that we are, we've assembled a list of some affordable and compelling reads for you to peruse and enjoy (and maybe learn from, too).

We watch so much porn, and then write about it, that it is a real pleasure (and relief) to read some of it ourselves.

Sam Benjamin's thoughtful, funny, and sometimes poignant "American Gangbang: A Love Story" details his hunt for money and art in Porn Valley in the mid-oughts, and culminates in a device appropriate to the anal nature of his medium. Benjamin expanded "Gangbang" from its original eBook form to create a handsome print volume that emphasizes the author's self-doubt, self-deception, and journey to reconciling those things with a real artistic sensibility.

We heard great things about Ashley Blue's Girlvert: A Porno Memoir but nobody sent us a review copy.

Still, we've always been impressed with the way Blue (who wrote "Girlvert" under her original name, Oriana Small) confronts art, life, and porn, and are confident you'll finish her book no Small fan of Oriana.

Here's Ori reading a passage from "Girlvert," introduced by Carol Queen.

(My depth of feeling about the making of "The Facts of Life XXX" inspired me to write A Porn Valley Odyssey: Making "The Facts of Life XXX"." You should read this if for no other reason than to learn how one selects a Tootie.)

Maria Alexander's "At Louche Ends" is an exercise in girding one's broken heart and uncrossing one's fishnetted legs with an Adam Ant-load of New Romantic firepower. When not creating works of supernatural sexiness herself, Alexander writes for Disney, where one of her claims to fame is The Haunted Mansion description on Disneyland.com.

Finally, Portia Jordan's And Then Her Mouth captures a late-90's, pre-sex blog curiosity, sorrow, narcissism, and frankness that defies a 140-character limit.