Question for you, Dr. Ruth: Do books make good aphrodisiacs? “Absolutely!” enthuses the bite-sized sex therapist. “A book is not like television or film. You’re forced to use your own imagination. So it certainly can be sexually arousing, even if you don’t have a partner and have to do it by yourself. Maybe by next Valentine’s Day, you will have a partner!”
Every day is V-Day for Dr. Ruth, whose book “Sex for Dummies,” is now in its third edition. “At first, I didn’t want to write this book,” she confides. “I’m teaching at Yale and Princeton, I don’t want to write for dummies. Then I saw ‘Windows for Dummies’ and said, ‘I’ll do it!’ ” That it’s been translated into 15 foreign languages, she suggests, tells you something about the interest in sex. Here are four of her hottest reads.
— Barbara Hoffman
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
by D.H. Lawrence
I was enchanted by this book. I read it to learn English by! Like any other romance story, you want to know what happens. Even in today’s world, people would not think someone who does work for you is particularly sexually interesting and arousing, but the gardener turns out to be a superb lover!
My Secret Garden
by Nancy Friday
When [this book] came on the market, I thought, what a country we live in! It’s not a scientifically validated study, but it doesn’t matter. They’re good fantasies and they’re interesting to read. It important for people to know they’re not the only ones who need fantasies in order to have an orgasm.
Men in Love
by Nancy Friday
These are fantasies that men have. Let’s say a stranger overpowers you — that’s more a female fantasy. A male fantasy is to have sex with 10 different women in one night. Unrealistic! Another fantasy is that at a certain age they can have 12 erections. Not likely! But in their fantasies, they can have sex a whole night.
The Art of Arousal
by Dr. Ruth Westheimer
I did a book signing at the Met with curator Gary Tinterow — Gary did the history of the painting and I did the sexual interpretation. Someone said we didn’t use women painters, but of course we did. We had a magnificent painting by Georgia O’Keeffe that she said wasn’t a vagina, but everyone knows it is. People, heterosexual or homosexual, should look at this book and then have a good sexual experience.