Sex Collectors: The Secret World of Consumers, Connoisseurs, Curators, Creators, Dealers, Bibliographers, and Accumulators of "Erotica" ~ Book Review

I picked up this book because the cover reminded me of Méret Oppenheim's Object, the infamous fur lined tea cup.

The subject matter was fascinating, save the private collections of toys amassed by myself and similar kinky individuals, I had not given much thought to serious collectors of erotica. It was an amusing read, though a bit rambled and disorganized. Geoff Nicholson concentrates on only a handful of collectors and dedicates about a chapter to each. He almost always notes that this is an expensive hobby and most of the collectors are of a certain age. Perhaps because this, its never quite revealed about the personal sexual preferences of the collectors, but I think its a given one cannot be so taken with collecting erotica, if one wasn't specifically interested in the actual subject matter.

He visits the Kinsey Museum, possibly the most interesting thing to do in Indiana, which reminds me I should really read the Kinsey Report too and see the movie. Kinsey collected everything he possibly could about sex in addition to his extensive interviews. Nicholson touches on one such interview of a man who has countless sexual encounters with all beings of all ages, which was truly sickening and sad, but how Kinsey as a scientist could not turn him over to the authorities because he was merely recording (or collecting) his experiences. It pointed out a good deal of vintage erotica books that I would like to read.

This was a pretty amusing, quick read.