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Books and Magazines
Books for Beginners
If you have to special order any of these books please do your community a favor and order them from the business who support you community directly: local independent bookstores and fetish boutiques. Alternatively you can order them over the Internet. QSM sell many of them while Circlet Press sell their own titles directly.
- Bannon, Race Learning the Ropes Daedalus Publishing Co.: Los Angeles, (This book is one of the first two I lend out to people new to the scene and chomping at the bit to get involved. It's a quick read that covers the essentials. It's also the cheapest to replace if I don't get it back.)
- Brame, Gloria, Brame Will, and Jon Jacobs Different Loving Villard Books, 1993.
- Califia, Pat. Sensuous Magic: A Guide for Adventurous Couples New York: Masquerade Books, Inc., 1998.
- Easton, Dossie and Cathrine A. Listzt The Bottoming Book Greenery Press: San Francisco, 1994. (A book for Submissives)
- Easton, Dossie and Cathrine A. Listzt The Topping Book Greenery Press: San Francisco, 1995. (A book for Dominants)
- Miller, Philip and Molly Devon Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns Mystic Rose Books: Fairfield,
- Warren, John The Loving Dominant Masquerade Books: New York,
- Wiseman, Jay SM 101: A Realistic Introduction Greenery Press: San Francisco,
(Mr. Wiseman wrote The Medical Realities of Breath Control Play, BDSM Tip Sheet for Beginners (with Lady Green), and Ten Tips for the Novice, Single, Heterosexual, Submissive Woman on this site and numerous other valuable essays. This book is one of the first two I lend out to people new to the scene.)
This list is incomplete. I'm sure I missed something.
More Advanced Books
The following books build upon the material covered in the preceding. I recommend them after reading at least one of the books in the list above.
- Antoniou, Laura (Editor). Some Women. Rhinoceros Publications: Medford, OR, 1998.
(An excellent collection of thought provoking essays writen my a diverse collection of women. Many of the essays challenge the accepted wisdom and expectations of the BDSM community. The introduction by Pat Califia is worth the cover price of the book by itself. Sadly, this book is out of print.) - Baldwin, Guy, MS. Ties That Bind: The SM/Leather/Fetish Erotic Style: Issues, Commentaries and Advice Daedalus Publishing Co.: San Francisco, 1993.
(Not to be confused with the book with the same title by Venessa Duries. Mr. Baldwin's book is a wonderful collection of very well written and accessible essays covering the interpersonal aspects of the S&M scene. Guy Baldwin is both a psychotherapist and an experienced player. While the essays were originally written for a gay male S&M magazine, it's easy for women and straight men to read past the pronouns and benefit from his insights. It's one of those books you want to share with your friends as soon as you've finished reading it. His essay on the "Old Guard" is posted in the History and Protocol section of this site.) - Campbell, Drew, The Bride Wore Black Leather ... and he looked fabulous! Greenery Press: Emeryville, 2000.
(Assuming you know the basics of BDSM protocol -- which this site covers in the History and Protocol section -- I'd recommend this book for further reading. It's a guide to good manners in alternative sexuality / lifestyle situations including -- but not limited to -- BDSM circles.) - Jacques, Trevor with Dr. Dale, Michael Hamilton, & Sniffer On the Safe Edge: A Manual for SM Play WholeSM Publishing: Toronto, 1993.
(A guide for more advanced play. Several of the authors have contributed to the pamphlet Information from The Safer SM Education Project at The AIDS Committee of Toronto posted in the Health and Safety section this site.) - The Gift of Fear is not a BDSM book, but I recommend it to all my scene friends -- especially single submissive women. Jay Wiseman as written a book review for The Gift of Fear which does a good job of describing it and putting it a BDSM perspective.
- For more books on the various aspects of BDSM, read the History of Our Leather-S/M-Fetish Subculture and Communities: towards a bibliography compiled by slave david stein.
Erotica and Porn by Authentically Kinky People
Both erotica and porn!
- Laura Antoniou page on Amazon.com: Laura Antoniou is the author of the well known Marketplace series of erotic novels. The Marketplace series describes "an elite and secretive world organization, dedicated to the auctioning and overseeing of the world's finest lifestyle slaves... a world so vivid in sequel after sequel, it takes on a reality of its own, one that's visually hard to let go of once the reader has put down the book." (Libido Magazine).
- Notes on and Quotes from Master of O by Ernest Greene: First rate novel about BDSM relationships by an author with first hand experience.
- The Slave Girl by Hans Meijer (Kindle edition) (The author might be the same Hans Meijer who was the chairman of the now defunct POWERotics Foundation.)
On-Line Magazines and Print Periodicals
- The Leather Journal - Online version of print newsletter. Scene news and gossip, political opinions, personals, national calendar of gay men's fetish events.
- The On Our Backs Online Archive: The Best of Lesbian Sex issues 1998-2000. Covers topics including dykes who do edge play, latex-licious dyke cocksucking, a vampire fantasy spread, bondage and butch strap-on photoshoots, a report-back on a femdom class by Midori, and spanking for pleasure,
- Skin Two
Entire Books Published on This Site
- Etiquette by Emily Post (in the "History and Protocol" section): This is an online republication of the 1922 edition of Emily Post's 627-page first edition Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home (The 1922 edition is highly recommended by observers of High Procotol.)
- The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana (in the "Miscellaneous Pages" section.)
- The Monk by M. G. Lewis
Plus a Collection of Poems
Related Pages
- Online Shopping for BDSM Toys: A unique selection of inexpensive sources for quality toys including some less expensive toy sources most people don't think about.
- Creative Toy Sources!
- Clothespins!
- On Making Canes
- Books and Magazines
- Jay Wiseman's Book Review for The Gift of Fear
- Scene Music
- Relevant DVDs: Recommendations for DVDs with BDSM themes