'They say men think about sex every eight seconds - I want to know what they think about for the other seven...'
Abby Lee is smart, sassy and perpetually single. Frustrated with her mediocre love life, she's now looking for the kind of sex she's always wanted. From the illicit thrill of a threesome to a kinky introduction to the delights of a whip, this is the intimate diary of Abby's extraordinary sexual journal.
NB: Although the cover states 'Girl with a One Track Mind Confessions of the Seductress next door', this does not appear on the title page, which states just the first part without the extra strap line and that is how this edition is catalogued.
I shouldn't read memoirs, I don't like them. A few issues this book threw up for me- 1) how does Abby eat, work, live with all the time she spends getting herself off? 2) how is she not incredibly sore? 3) how much is her laundry bill with the amount of wet knickers she's washing? 4) how has she not been arrested? 5) she should wear a nappy Instead of leaving snail trails everywhere she goes
This book is so vanilla I actually chose to sleep instead of read - shocking! Seriously, this girl needs to get a life. She is voracious in bed, certainly, and the explicit scenes she only touches on (never really delves into) are juicy and fun. But she is so mired down in the social expectations of being good and chaste that she just comes off as self-loathing: "What would they say if they knew I was such a sex fiend? Why am I such a sex fiend?" And other pointless, boring and inane chatter about her sex drive. Coming from a point of view of, Why question it? Just enjoy it! I felt really uncomfortable with her constant self-exploratory rambling.
Not only that, but she is judgemental as all hell. At one point, a foot fetishist approaches her on the street to admire and compliment her lowest appendages. She proceeds to ask herself, "Why do I only ever get approached by weirdos?" or some such claptrap. I actually felt offended by her published opinions at times. By all means, be judgmental in your own head, but this edition was published after she had been exposed and her name attached to it! I was pretty damn angry at this point.
She doesn't seem to know how to communicate. She spends half the book trying to figure out if this bloke she likes fancies her back, but never actually asks him about it. She assumes she thinks about sex more than any other woman, but doesn't seem to have enough conversations with women to justify this odd belief (I myself don't have friendships with women, either, but at least I'm not so self-involved as to think I'm the only one of anything). She also makes assumptions and broad generalisations about "men", as though they're a different species. She assumes men don't like her because of the number of people she's slept with, but doesn't ask any of them if that's actually the reason, or if it's just cos, you know, she's fugly. She assumes ... blah, blah, blah, vomit.
Overall, a bit of a waste of time. It has inspired me to go back to an old favourite before launching my mouse on unknown "porn" writers again.
I tend to read books about shagging when I am on "winter sun" holiday. Over the last 5 years I have read some quite depressing books written by women about their sex lives. And I don't even attempt to read those by sex workers - i mean the whole sexuality thing is so stereotipical and distorted in those stories. No, it won't give me any wanks, no way. Anr there is nothing to learn there to be freer, if all the sex they are having is to please others, or is a job, and is with weirdos. I mean it is not about pleasure for a woman and therefore I see no point in reading about it.
But "Girl with a one track mind" is a different story: not only a woman is not ashamed of her suxuality, she revels in it. She is proud of it and has sex on her terms, a rare thing in female sexual writtings. The question hammering in my head is: how someone who works for 14 hours and has about 4 hours of sleep can be wet next day and gagging for a shag? People's stamina don't cease to amaze me...
The book is very honest, author is not mincing words. There is no pretention to sound artistic of sophisticated about sex (like Catherine Millet in her pompous and futile "Sexual life of Cahterine M"). It's pure experience and some good tips, and it is funny, too.
The downside of Abby Lee's (real name Zoe Margolis, she was exposed by the Times newspaper, the bastards!) diary, for it is a diary, is that it is by a purpose a diary of sex life, so any other personal traits are obscured by the litany of shags and wanks. We don't really know the author, the book is purposefully concentrated on sex. Hence, the one-sided feel of it, at least to me.
But I strongly recommend it to anybody (women in particular) who is interested in sexuality and is not satisfied with Cosmopolitan/Glamour take on it. The language is very simple, so it will suit perfectly for those for whom English is not the native language, if not for the priceless cultural experience.
Fabulous stuff. Instantly warmed to Abby and was made to feel like a close friend and confidant in the extreme highs and lows of her life. Delighted that she has been able to turn her public 'outing' into becoming an excellent role model for young women today, empowering them to make their own choices about how to express their sexuality.
It's porn. Bad memoir porn. It's not something I would normally pick up and read so I'm probably reviewing with a bias towards negativity, but the 'sexy bits' weren't particularly sexy. Too much focus on the, what might be best described as, the atmospheric funk? At one point, she goes to an orgy with a friend and rather than the risque excitement of multiple people getting their kicks, what stood out most was a description of the smell of sex and the condensation on the walls. Eww, right? Before I realized the person who wrote it was outed, I honestly thought it was written by a man. An older side of middle aged man. Partly because of how often 'arse' was used. It seemed farcical, a bit too... British television comedy. And despite being billed as an honest and frank look at a woman's sexuality, I had trouble relating. She comes across like an immature man's fantasy of a frank and honest sexual woman. There's barely a mention of her non-sexual life, work just doesn't seem to factor in after January, no hints of what she likes to do in her spare time (aside from masturbate), a weird shoe-horning in of her political views (proclaimed socialist, but probably labour). If you're marketing a book as a confessional, it ought to have a ring of truth to it, and this just didn't. As the book progressed, it seemed like the editor had penciled in the margins 'add emotional development here', and employed a ghostwriter, such is the shift in tone. And the ghostwriter was eating a sandwich at the time and trying not to get mustard everywhere- doing a half assed job of emotional development in other words. The End.
Having lived in London for a good few years, I never realised that the Evening Standard was prone to understatement. However, on this occasion I must accuse it of being so for, of Abby Lee's 'Girl with a One Track Mind', it stated, 'Grippingly filthy'. Gripping perhaps, filthy, well it is perhaps a stage further than that!
A friend of mine bought me the book; I think she may have thought that I had lived a somewhat sheltered life and having read this volume, she was most certainly correct. I had definitely not even lived life anything like in the context of this diary! It was very definitely an eye-opener.
One of Abby's acquaintances later in the book says to her, 'Abby, I know you. You are an honest and upfront woman - in fact you're the most straightforward person I know. Why can't you tell him what's on your mind?' I do not think he did know her and he had obviously not read her diary for he would not have said that if he had. She never held back from telling her paramours, or would-be paramours, what was on her mind. And it was always just the one thing - sex and everything associated with it!
And that was sex in any shape or form, in any position or in any location. She had no inhibitions and would indulge herself to her heart's content at the drop of her hat, or the drop of anything else that was to hand! And there were no restrictions, anything was on the menu, literally!
Being a diary it does not need a storyline as such but there is one all consuming theme, obviously, sex but there is a pseudo-storyline in that throughout all her exploits, be it with a partner(s) - male or female - or alone, and there is plenty of the latter going on, she had a yearning for one of her lovers, Blog Boy as she called him, to get serious with her and devote all his time to her whims and fancies. Unfortunately, although he enjoyed himself with her in many ways from time to time, he could not commit to her and at the end of December (the diary consumes one year) she is left high and dry - well, according to her diary entries, not necessarily dry!
The last entry in the diary is that she wants - sorry, I can't repeat it but suffice it to say she mentions the dining room table and she intends to continue having fun along the way whilst admitting that she has to make love (a euphemism for her own words) to a few frogs before she finds her prince!
The best way to describe the diary is that it is an enlightening read.
Later: Having reflected on this book, I have decided that I was far too generous; it is now a one star item.
Girl with a One Track Mind; Confessions from the Seductress Next Door by Abby Lee… Hmm, well, this was rather revealing and titillating. Word of warning! Obviously not suitable for children or prudes or those with weak hearts needing surgery. Just saying. Abby is an independent woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to ask for it. Be it a quick shag in the loo, or something a lot more descriptive, she is upfront about her sexual needs and desires. For one year she anonymously documented her sexual escapades and emotional state in an online blog (which won several awards). Which was later published as this book, and at the same time her anonymity disappeared when a newspaper discovered her real identity and shared it with the public. Oops. What is it with the English? This is only my second sexual memoir from English authors, but damn, it’s amazing (the first was Confessions of a Submissive by Sophie Morgan). They are so eloquent and straight forward about it all. And extremely intelligent. They deviate from the usual dialogue of sex that we see in a lot of erotic stories, still using words like cock though, and still make it sound appealing. I’m struggling here to try and keep this somewhat clean and not X rated. To talk about specifics would be revealing a little too much. If you don’t fall into the categories above in the first paragraph, then go forth and find this book. It’s a good read and almost educational.
I originally picked this up years ago when I was doing some nude modeling in San Francisco. A fetish photographer friend I was staying with had it on his bookshelf, and I read it between gigs. He told me the story of how it started out as an anonymous blog, and I thought that was so cool. I always meant to finish it someday.
Well, I am not sure why I don't like it as much now. Maybe because I'm older & more experienced. When I first started it, I had only slept with 3 people - 1 of them a closet homosexual who used me as a beard & cheated on me with men, another much older than me & impotent. All of 3 of them were long term boyfriends. So it was fascinating to read about casual sex, something I'd never had before.
Now I'm 30, married, and I've had my own adventures. So it wasn't taboo to read this anymore, and it was poorly written with no narrative arc. It's very vanilla, and I never got a sense of what the characters she slept with were like. I couldn't even picture them. I found her "advice" humorous at best, but mostly just dull. Even the scenes of group sex at a swingers spa had me bored. She could've benefitted from a ghostwriter.
Also, once I got through the beginning of it, I realized it just doesn't work as a book. The blog format may have been much better.
One good thing I will say for it - it's honest and unpretentious. I bet the author is a girl I'd get along with, and I'd love hearing her tell me these stories while we drank wine. She's just not a writer.
Parts of this book were really hot, and fun to read. However, perhaps in the author's quest to preserve her anonymity at the time (though she's since been outed and unfortunately lost a job over her blog), a lot of the story feels very...anonymous. Even trying to be very fictional-sounding, if that makes sense. There are other sides to her personality that she mentions, but doesn't go into detail about, which is a shame, as I don't feel like I got to know her as a 'real' person. But it is a book mostly about sex, so it's to be expected that's what she's focusing on. Her blog does make for some good reading, girlwithaonetrackmind.blogspot.com
Not to say I wouldn't enjoy meeting her one day...and then some ;^)
LOVE love love it !!! Love how it has been wrote, how it unfolds and how the descriptions make you want to know more. It was a really fun read and i always recommend this to friends.
Was recommended this one by a female friend. Sorry but found it utter drivel. Bridget Jones but all sex. What a pointless read. Hence no more recommendations from this friend. I understand that it doesn't matter what people read so long as they read, and that we all don't like the same topics but SERIOUSLY.
WARNING: Če si Martin Hovnik ne brat tega, ker bom govorla o X rated zadevah…
Okej, cela knjiga je dnevnik sexa od avtorice. Mislim this gurl is something else, divja je, samozavesta, ful si upa. Edina stvar, ko ji gre po glavi je sex pa vsaka tretja stran ma sex sceno nt ( zelo podrobno opisano ). Sam gre knjiga od tega da si da celo pest nter v lulo do tega da je tk ko vecina punc pa si sam želi zveze, ceprav jo tipi kr naprej razocarajo. Opisan je tut BDSM, pa prvic sen tk v kaki knjigi al pa kjerkol brala o tem pa o tem zaka je ljudem to vsec ( ker pac komu je vsec to da te nekdo tepe ) ampak je bla dokaj poučna o tem kk deluje dating pa zveze.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
[Warning: If you're a conservative, especially a religious one, this book will have you run away screaming.]
What a good surprise this book was! When it comes to books about sex, especially when the books are based on a blog, it can easily be cheap, shallow or just plain voyeuristic. Not to mention that the prose may be extremely bland. NOT AT ALL the case with Girl With A One Track Mind.
To begin with, Abby Lee's (or rather Zoe Margolis's) writing style is fresh and witty. It is simple, yes, because... well, the book is based on a blog and its main purpose is not literary achievement but to reflect with sincerity and realism about sex experiences and their implications. So it's simple, but also sharp and piquant, with loads of quips and repartee. I laughed aloud more than once while reading this book.
Concerning the content, the book doesn't disappoint either. Presented as a 1-year diary, we follow Abby's quest for an adventurous sex life and possibly a fulfilling romantic life also. Needless to say, various sex encounters, some quite unsual, are described - very crudely, but never in a voyeuristic way. The book is saucy but NOT pornographic. Abby's sexual experiences are always analyzed, so that at the end of the book you've had interesting insight about desire, lust, or the role of psychology in sex. You can also identify with her on various occasions (the occasions will differ according to the reader), and actually I think the book has a strong feminist side partly because of that. I'm not talking of feminazis, or this awful type of feminism that sees misogyny everywhere. I'm talking of what feminism should be like: the book shows women there is nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to sex and desire. It definitely has an empowering side as well as an enlightened side. Abby talks more than once about the double standard that exists when it comes to male and female sexuality. Also, as I previously mentioned, there is a lot of humour in this book, and every few chapters you can find a 1 or 2-page guide, like "the girl's guide to chatting someone up", "the girl's guide to quality sought in a man" or "the girl's guide to cock size". Always witty AND not lacking interest.
To finish, I'd recommend this book to every girl who'd like to be able to relate their sexual experiences to someone else's and maybe get a clearer view, while having a fun and quick read. Actually, I think all of us want to know we are not alone when it comes to this or that, especially concerning intimate matters,so basically this book is for virtually every (modern) girl. But I would also recommend to book to guys. It's not cheesy nor anything that would scare guys, and it'd give them some insight into women's thinking. It may even make them learn one or two things, about what to say/not to say or do/not to do in various occasions! ;-)
I admire Abby's candor. It seems exciting to have a range of partners with whom you have electrifying sex. (I need to reverse my lifestyle.) During my experience reading this book, I decided to research the author. The British media blasted her anonymity and she decided to move to New York City to escape the furor. I don't know for certain if she still lives in the Big Apple. At the end of the book, she expresses the desire to have sex doggie-style with her husband "when our kids are asleep (Lee 310)."
http://nhw.livejournal.com/722523.html[return][return]Many of us who write blogs like to occasionally fantasise that there may some day be a market for our words of wisdom. (Of course, some who write blogs are already established professional writers, so this does not apply to them.) Very few, however, manage to make the transition from blogger to published author on the basis of what is in their blog; I doubt very much that my book reviews from here will ever appear in dead tree form in your local bookshop.[return][return]Of course, that's because I write about books I have read, and occasionally sf cons I have been to, or arguments I have had, or speeches I have made, and not about sex. The Girl With A One Track Mind has written a very entertaining blog about the sex she has had for the last couple of years, and managed (somehow strangely) to persuade a publisher to take it on, and here it is.[return][return]And it is an entertaining, in some ways rather a moral read. Sex with strangers, or semi-strangers, is not always satisfactory. Wildly successful sex does not necessarily lead to a wildly successful relationship. By the end of the book, she is firming up her ideas about what she wants from a long-term partner. In that way, the novel format is more sustainable than the blog - done properly, as it is here, it imposes a duty on the author of character development, of story arc rather than the episodic narrative we get from the blog.[return][return]The Sunday Times wrote an incredibly spiteful article exposing the author's real identity - typical of the trash rag it is (a friend of mine who was briefly its foreign correspondent had to help the then foreign editor work out where the Balkan states were, one of many events that I thought Evelyn Waugh had invented for Scoop). However, she has since made a few more media appearances on her own terms. Let's hope that her fears of being finished in her film industry career are exaggerated, and that she continues to write entertainingly and for profit.
So one would think that having taken me almost two years to finally get through this book that the book actually sucked, but that was SO not the case! The major delay in me finishing this book was the fact that it got so intense (read "erotic") at times that I just had to put it down to move onto something else. *blush* I finally was determined to finish it though before the end of the year because I didn't want to see it on my Shelfari shelf come 2009 and so I did. LOL! And boy it got steamy! Whew!!! Anyway, this book is chock-full of sexual adventures that Abby went through over the course of a year and shows how she learned about herself and what she wanted in life more so during that time. The ending of the book didn't have one of those expected "oh-so-happy-endings" that are so predictable and I was quite happy about that. It seemed more realistic (and like my life) when it turned out differently for her in the end. I definitely say this is worth a read to anyone that enjoys reading erotica as it is definitely erotic... and it's even better knowing that it's a true story!
You can keep track of Abby Lee even more at her blog as I just stumbled across it online (and I now see that there was a link to it at the beginning of the book as well, which I probably noticed two years ago... LOL!!!):
I am by no means a prude nor am I a sexual fiend, I would rather much like to think of myself as in between. This book however is descriptively founded on the being a fiend. Abby Lee is a single, intelligent woman who lives in London who's book details on her experiences with love, relationships, friendship and lots and lots of sex!!
The narrative is honest, blunt and filled with the essence of wanting a good shag. There is a lot of inner conflict between meeting and establishing a good relationship with the men that she meets and succumbing to her carnal desires (she definitely has a lot of those).
Reading it was like EAT.PRAY.LOVE but just change the words that resemble somewhat more of a sexual innuendo. The ending concluded positively (for her) and justified her whole experience as a growth experience and that 'a girls gotta shag a few frogs before she finds her prince'.
The funniest book about sex that I have ever, ever read. Abby is witty, sexy, her sexual adventures were very ... exciting. Her sexual misadventures were hilarious (and still a little sexy) My favourite part is the terrible attempt at a threesome (2 girl 1 guy - the other woman becomes jealous AND is rubbish at fondlng!) and trying to get a guy to stop staring at her breasts (she eventually asks him to look all he wants for 1 minute - to get them out of his system). The book reminded me of Nick Hornby (in a good way) with it's lists. It had lots, and lots of sex and truth, there was stuff you never get in erotic fiction like: menstruation (and the old saggy knickers she wears when she's 'on'); soreness; having a really bad cold; crap sex; flatulence. Abby, "ethical slut"; sexploit heroine ; wonderful humourist.
I love that there is an honest book about female masturbation and sex. She is totally willing to honestly admit to sexual fantasy and what she wants. That is inspiring and something that I believe more people should be talking about. There were moments when I was questioning the authenticity of the diary. The dialogue seems to fluid to have been recalled from memory and written down, but finishing the book definitely adds to the realness. It doesn't follow the typical "Bridget Jones" plot line and so Abby's sex life is all the more captivating and interesting for a wanna-be sex fiend. I found myself living vicariously through her sexual escapades and wondering if I would have enough confidence were I in a different situation. Overall, Abby was funny and genuine and honest and that made me love her and completely understand her.
I enjoyed this book. Yes, this woman's libido is well above average, I would think, but still, I like that she gave a frank voice to the fact that many women do enjoy sex, pursue it, think about it often, etc. To describe this book as 'racy' would be an understatement. Towards the end, it did start to veer into predictable territory. (The whole "all this horny woman who has a lively and varied sex life wants, is a stable and monogamous relationship" thing.) But the author pulls it all back from the brink of triteness at the last minute. I even felt empathy for her in regards to Blog Boy. Read this book with an open mind and you may just learn a thing or two and be entertained in the process.
This book is aptly named. Given the time that "Abby" spends thinking about, planning, reminiscing about, or actually having sex, it's difficult to see how she has time to eat or work. However, by the end of the book (which I have put under "fiction" because I have no idea whether it is or isn't) she has reached the conclusion that sex is better with an emotional connection, and she starts behaving accordingly. Surprisingly moral at times, with handy "Girl's guide to...." sections, often very funny and definitely readable, she is very upfront about her interactions with men. I do feel sorry that she got outed by the press, I'm sure that even she found it difficult for her family and friends to know about some of her exploits.
Overall I rather liked 'Girl with a One-Track Mind.' It was slightly different to read a book written in the form of/from a diary (somewhat like Bridget Jones' Diary) but it worked well and Abby's honesty drew me in. Yes, there was a lot of sex. Sometimes it was a little too much; I wanted to read a bit more about Abby and connect with the character/writer a little more but this is primarily a diary and secondly a book so it's never going to capture a character and all their quirks like a novel does. It was an interesting read and Abby led us through all of her sexual adventures (including all the, sometimes, gory details) and while she explored what she did and didn't like. I thought it was a good read but I think I prefer a saucy novel with a little more storyline to hold it up.