Recently I was asked : “Lindsey, what are some of your favorite books related to sexuality?”. So I'm going to take some time to show you my favorites – some of them, because some of them are...not here. (I think Els took them!)

Hey! Starting with Sexualia [From Prehistory to Cyberspace, by Clifford Bishop and Xenia Osthelder]. This book was given to me by my mother. She used to go to the outlet store in Ohio and find anything that she could related to sex for her budding sexologist daughter. This book in particular is an encyclopedia type with gorgeous pictures. Then there is this image which inspired a really big event in my career! Being that I have Japanese heritage and this is about sexuality, I was able to combine the two in an event called the “Polytana Sushi Social”.

Next up, some of the more educational material I love. This one is The Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability [For All of Us Who Live With Disabilities, Chronic Pain, and Illness, by Miriam Kaufman, Cory Silverberg and Fran Odette]. It actually applies to any person and any body. This one I was able to get in China at the museum of sex. I'm not sure what the title is because it is in Chinese...

My favorite sex-guide is called The Guide to Getting It On [A Book About the Wonders of Sex] by Paul Joannides. I don't have this one because it is constantly on loan: I get it and it's gone! I love this book because it's a great value. For not much money you're given a huge book, lots of pages and cartoon illustrations of sexuality, all the genders, all the orientations, positions, what to do with your mouth and your anus... It goes on and on. What is fun about it is that Paul is coming from a research background, he wasn't a sexologist by nature but he became one because of his fascination and I appreciate that because it's rigorous, rigorous commitment to what we know and not necessarily what we think. I also really like The Guide to Getting It On because Paul makes a point to ask people in the community what their experiences are so he can share those as well.

This in my number one recommendation for partners: The Two Step: The Dance Toward Intimacy [by Eileen McCann and Douglas Shannon]. It has been so popular and out of print for so long that the company actually picked up the opportunity to reprint it so they can distribute more and more and more to... possibly my clients. The Two Step: The Dance Toward Intimacy is essentially about how we relate to one another as both seekers and “soughts”. Are you pursuing someone, are you being pursued, and how does that affect the relationship dynamic? The book isn't very long and it is mostly pictures.

I also really like textbooks and one of the benefits of teaching in the university is that the publishers send you lots of them. Publishers really hope that you are going to pick their book for the 200 students that you are bound to teach. I don't have a favorite textbook, I have yet to find one that really suits me and my class. But Hock's Human Sexuality is one I know how to navigate really well. And King's Human Sexuality Today is my first human sexuality textbook! It's where I learned about cultural differences – we'll get into them later .

Harmful to Minors [The Perils of Protecting Children, by Judith Levine] is another one I really enjoy but don't have in my person. This book is about how we try to protect our children from sexuality , withhold information, promote abstinence and in doing so, do a lot of harm. This book also introduced me to Jocelyn Elders who wrote the forward. Talk about fangirl! When I met Jocelyn... *fangirls*

A favorite book activity which might not be a favorite book is going to garage sales and picking things up, finding out which boxes are going to send me energy that there is a sexual treasure inside. Some of the ones I found include The Dieter's Guide to Weight Loss During Sex [by Richard Smith]!

And there is one more book: The Red Couch [A Portrait of America by William Moon]. This book is the reason why my furniture is red. I was introduced to it by my father, he is a photographer. What it means to me is that when somebody sits on the red couch, they have a story worth telling. A team of two photographers and an interviewer took the same red couch across the country, inviting people to sit upon it and tell their stories. They captured this images, “A portrait of America”: it gives a physical cohesion to the differences we each have.

So when a client comes into my office and plops down on the couch, they are all connected in the value of their voice to be heard and the human sexuality we share.