Books about Sex

[Paul J.]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Paul J., how do you research a book of this nature. Surely it can't all be first person trial and error. I'd assume you'd check out what's on the market already, study some research papers, interview some Dr Ruth types, and add personal or anecdotal experience. What am I missing here?

I'm not sure whether it helped or hurt, but I'm a research psychoanalyst, which for me ended up requiring about ten years worth of grad school. To finally get the first edition of the book written, I pretty much lived in the stacks at the Biomed library at UCLA for a couple of years, reading everything I could get my hands on. And when I wasn't there, I was on the west end of Topanga Beach, doing, well....

Each new edition takes a year of 12 hour days. I do that every other year. I spend a huge amount of time trying to keep up on everything from the science of sex, to learning about the history of sex, to learning more about sex in popular culture, and in other cultures.

And I listen. And ask questions--more than is probably good for you.

I guess I do what anyone does who has written a big old honkin' book and wants it to be the best it can possibly be.