Put What Where?: Over 2,000 Years of Bizarre Sex Advice

by John Naish

Hilarious miscellany of sex advice throughout the ages from seven-week long Balinese foreplay and Victorian Viagra to swinging tips from the 1970s. It is one of the oldest questions in the How do you do sex? And it has prompted some of the most stupid answers in human history. Since the dawn of civilization, a bizarrely eccentric host of self-appointed experts has befuddled, frightened and confused questioners by selling them bull about the birds and bees. Ancient Chinese Viagra was made from wasps. Medieval Indian advice books warned lovers never to have sex in front of the priest or in the middle of the road. Middle-Ages Britons claimed drunkenness was the best way to conceive, while Persians thought they could enlarge themselves with ginger and honey. And as for the Victorians and Edwardians, hot blankets were the devil's work, banisters should be banned and tight corsets could cause nymphomania. The odd playful slap wouldn't do any harm though. Here, then, is the cream of thousands of years of advice on where, when and how to put it, how to receive it, what to spread on it first and how to spend your time after it's all over. It makes you wonder how humankind ever got this far.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Sexuality, Humor, Erotica, Reference, Adult

288 pages, Print on Demand (Paperback)

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

John Naish is a British health journalist, currently writing for The Times.

He is a t'ai chi–practicing vegetarian and does not own a mobile phone. He lives in Brighton.

Reviews

[Mimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly just paragraphs out of the books the writer is commenting on (and sometimes Users the same quote more than once), with added witty captions.
Enterttaining, mildly informative on the history of sex manuals.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘A person who consumes sage upon which a cat has ejaculated will have kittens” - De Secretis Mulierum
Also wear quiet socks in bed as cold feet aren’t sexy.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Bizarre sex advice" is really the best tag you could think of for this one. The book is filled with small, weird excerpts from love manuals of all ages and cultures. It's entertaining to read them sporadically and the bits of historical information between chapters are interesting. Am I the only one wondering if there were ever people who took things like "the eight ways to bite your partner" seriously?

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book good for a lot of giggles. It’s surprisingly long and there’s a lot of information here.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of useless information from years gone by. I may have figured out why I have back pain...

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very amusing collection of advice dating back a long way, some are banal in the extreme but many are absolute howlers and will have you thinking "what were they thinking?

[Chris Cousins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of 2,000 years of weird sex advice, from the amusing to plain wrong and downright dangerous! Quite an interesting read.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A humorous look at sexual advice from the "experts" from about 300 BC to Dr. Alex Comfort's, Joy Of Sex in 1970. It is interesting and well written. Very entertaining.

[Nux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anything from laugh outloud funny to just plain bizzare even cringe worthy.