Life, Leather and the Pursuit of Happiness: Life, history and culture in the leather/BDSM/fetish community

by Steve Lenius

ANNOUNCING A MAJOR NEW BOOK ABOUT LIFE IN THE LEATHER/BDSM/FETISH COMMUNITY. "Life, Leather and the Pursuit of Happiness" is the first book by award-winning leather columnist Steve Lenius, whose "Leather Life" column has appeared in the pages of "Lavender" Magazine since 1995. Now he's chosen selections from fifteen years of Leather Life columns and other writings, newly updated and annotated, to create this book: a humorous, touching, revealing and enlightening tour through the alternative sexual and social worlds of contemporary leather, BDSM, fetish and kink. Read "Life, Leather and the Pursuit of Happiness" and discover: --A recipe for a leather vest --What's your LPT (leather personality type)? --The hankie code (in poetic form) --International Mr. Leather and International Ms Leather: A handy comparison chart --Are your sex toys hazardous to your health? --An open letter to Senator Larry Craig --Christian BDSM (Christian? Yes. Vanilla? Not necessarily.) --The feng shui of leather . . . and much, much more.

Genres: BDSM, Nonfiction, Sexuality, History, LGBT, Relationships

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 11, 2010

Reviews

[Veronika Valkovicova · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never wanted to be a part of a community this bad. I read somwhere that this is an ethnographic book which is actually no ethnography, and I have to second that. In the words of Bernard Black: I laughed, I cried, it changed my life. Everyone should read this book!

[Lia P · Rating 5 out of 5]

By just reading the introduction I knew I would find this book enjoyable, the writing style is casual which makes it easy to read. I absolutely love the notes and updates/corrections it tends to help letting the intrigue down. Know before hand that most of the articles are from the 1990s but the author is more open minded. To this day the humble columnist is still writing, which is a joy to look forward to. There’s a lot of basic stuff when it comes to BDSM (specifically SM) and the safety which is good to those who are more new to the scene.

[Reba Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one's best digested out of order via index reference. Reading it all cover-to-cover was difficult because I think a lot of the articles didn't need to be included. However, there were more than a few articles that I learned a lot of queer history from.

[Taylor Coleman · Rating 3 out of 5]

for a book club

i thought this was a fun read! very informative and i loved the history bits we got. also some super funny scenes had me rofllmaoing so hard

[NLA-I Awards · Rating 4 out of 5]

NLA-I writing awards finalist for books published in 2010.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enlightening. A must read for anyone in the Leather community.