A Look Inside The New (And Improved!) Joy Of Sex

A few months ago, we tipped you off to the fact "The Joy of Sex," that legendary hairy hippie sex guide, was getting an upgrade this year, with many new sections and brand new photos and illustrations. After months of eager (and impatient) waiting, we finally got our hands on a copy of the newly revised tome, and spent a good deal of time poring over ever last detail. Our thoughts--and a gallery of photos--inside.

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"The New Joy of Sex" owes a great deal to the old "Joy of Sex"--and not just because they're in the same series. Alex Comfort's name still graces the cover of the book, and much of what he wrote remains intact (only a handful of entries have been ditched entirely). The newness largely comes from the 43 additional passages, which focus on newfangled inventions like phone sex, the internet, sex shops, and sex during pregnancy (yeah, don't ask us why that was left out of the original). Though there's potential for a disjointed, pieced together book; Susan Quilliam manages to maintain Comfort's tone in her new passages, keeping all the wonderful aspects of the original sex guide, while making it a little more relevant for the sexually active of today.

We were, however, a bit taken aback by the updates to the illustrations. While the original "Joy of Sex" depicted those infamous hairy hippies, the new version features a thin, young white couple, with minimal body hair. We're not sure what was behind the change (embracing modern beauty standards? A desire to go mainstream and increase marketability?), but it left us feeling a bit nostalgic for the old illustrations. We can see hot young naked people anywhere--the "Joy of Sex" was always a repository for a different kind of nudity, one we wish they'd retained.

Nevertheless, the book is a solid guide to sex, and one we'd be proud to display on our shelves. If we're going to freak out our (future) children with an indepth, illustrated sex manual, this is exactly the kind we want to do it with.

· Buy The New Joy of Sex (amazon.com)