Book-A-Day #150 (12/13): Sex in N.Y. City by Alison Maddex

I think I bought this because it was cheap at the Montclair Book Center the last time I was there. In any case; it's supposedly a heavily-illustrated history of sex and sexuality in New York City, but it actually a thinly veiled catalog of a series of exhibits of photos, artwork and ephemera curated by this book's author, Alison Maddex. Each page is generally one piece of art (mostly either photos or vintage art), with a couple of paragraphs somewhat about that piece of art and somewhat about the place in NYC history of whatever kind of sexuality it depicts.

So anyone looking for an in-depth history will be disappointed. This is pretty scattershot, and (as usual with books like this) definitely has a point of view: anything having to do with sex is good, anyone or anything that tends to limit any kind of sex is bad. For most of the people who'd even consider reading a book like this (me, for example), that's not a big deal -- you pick up a book about sex because you like the idea of sex, so it's nice to see the author is in favor of it.

One interesting side note: the interior says that this is title Sex in the City, and the copyright page has a disclaimer that the title is not meant to evoke the name of a certain TV show. Evidently that wasn't enough, because the book was stickered, front and spine, with "N.Y." (in the little lips logo) over "The" -- as you can see on the bookshot.

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