# Porn: Does Anyone READ Porn, Instead Of Watch The Videos? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 18, 2004, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082 "2004-01-18T08:39:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mariemarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@Mariemarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mariemarie)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/21 "2004-01-19T00:39:13Z")
Anne Rice’s books contain a lot of erotica. I read her “Sleeping Beauty” books, which she wrote as A. N. Roquelaure. They were rather silly really, with so much talk of stinging buttocks, rosy buttocks, buttocks this, buttocks that. They explore some fetishes, such as dominant/submissive scenarios, the pony thing. They were an entertaining, quick read. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/22 "2004-01-19T01:52:18Z")
> [@Caught@Work](#): > > Oh, great, that’s all we need. > Some guy buying a porn book in the airport. > Then when he wanders through the security check-in all the guards jump on him because they think he’s got a gun in his pocket! No, really officer, I AM happy to see you. I can see where stories would be more enjoyable than movies. Sex happens in the brain and a good story line will generate more erotic thoughts than a picture will. From what I’ve seen of videos, they are devoid of any mental foreplay. IMO, porn video’s offer nothing but shock value and will require an ever increasing journey into shock to fullfill’s it’s intented purpose. Maybe if women directed them there would be more plot (and thus more erotica). ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/23 "2004-01-19T15:57:05Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > Let me know if you, or…uh, if you have a “friend” who buys porn books to read. I worked at a Borders for years and, yep, they’re still being bought. We didn’t have all that many, however, and the vast majority of buyers were women. I don’t recall ever selling one to a man; the men tended to buy the magazines. I think the novels have suffered the same fate as the girlie magazines (most of which have seen their subsricptions tumble with the rise of the internet): you can find a lot of content for cheap (or free) on the web. I’ve read some excellent “amateur” erotica self-published on various websites and archives. And an awful lot of the thriving genre of “slash” fiction is really just porn in disguise. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/24 "2004-01-19T21:18:10Z")
You can buy porno books at the grocery store. They’re marketed to women and feature calligraphy and sometimes pirates on the cover. They’re called “romances.” If you don’t think these are porn, you’ve never read one. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![noname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@noname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/noname)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/25 "2004-01-19T22:25:47Z")
I used ot read porn at asstr, but I get bored…now I prefer the images. ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/26 "2004-01-25T15:53:10Z")
I haven’t purchased any, but I have read some text-only porn on the internet. Some of it is quite good… ---
**Author:** ![nisosbar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@nisosbar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nisosbar)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/27 "2004-01-25T16:11:47Z")
I have a few here, but I prefer pix/videos. Some porn is really good, like Anais Nin, whose writing wasn’t really as graphic as today’s stuff, but was really kinky and sensuous - that turns me on. I also enjoyed Harold Robbins. (I know you probably don’t mean mass market stuff, but even mass market stuff can be pornographic). I find that the stuff I’ve read from today lacks creativity or imagination. I suppose that’s a gross overgeneralization. ---
**Author:** ![Profane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@Profane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Profane)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/28 "2004-01-25T17:53:34Z")
I greatly prefer written erotica. Anais Nin my my personal favorite. I used to visit Literotica, but it seems like it’s gone downhill in the past year or two. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/29 "2004-01-25T18:32:51Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > You can buy porno books at the grocery store. They’re marketed to women and feature calligraphy and sometimes pirates on the cover. They’re called “romances.” > > If you don’t think these are porn, you’ve never read one. :eek: You can also buy Auel’s Earth’s Children series at the grocery, and they’re pretty much well-researched soft-core porn set in the Stone Age. Of courese, romances are not created equal. Most of them are pretty tame, really; straight missionary-position sex, intermingled with the occasional romp on a table top or round of cunnilingus, all couched in flowery, euphemistic terms like “throbbing manhood”. Then you have things like the one my MIL had checked out from the library the last time we visited. I read it one night while I was waiting to go to sleep (I work nights, so I stay up a lot later than everyone else), and now I want to scrub my mind with a steel brush. This one delved into the world of deep-throat blowjobs, anal sex, partner-swapping, etc, and frankly, the thought of my MIL thinking about that sort of thing skeeves me out. And it generated the rather unfortunate mental picture of his mother engaging in these activities, hence the steel brush. With any luck, the brush will also be able to get of the phrases, “glistening woman-pearl” and “tender love grotto.” ---
**Author:** ![pokey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ebca7d/32.png) [@pokey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pokey)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/30 "2004-01-26T03:03:03Z")
I like the dirty paperbacks. I tend to like the really cheap and sleazy ones as opposed to the pretty ones and I prefer the short stories but nothing beats a paperback for throwing across the room when you’re finished with it. Plus you can take them into the bathroom. You can put them in your purse. They stay interesting a lot longer than a magazine for the same price. I can look at a picture about twice before it loses its mysterious charm for me. I definitely buy fewer paperbacks since the internet but I don’t really read porn on the internet. It’s cool to be able to get free movies and I avail myself but it’s not like this is the most comfy chair in the room so if I’m going to look at pictures or read stories I will buy them at the store until I get a laptop! ---
**Author:** ![PucksRaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecd19e/32.png) [@PucksRaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PucksRaven)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/31 "2004-01-26T04:31:54Z")
Another girl weighing in. I only read porn, rarely if ever watch it. Literotica never really did it for me, but romance novels and straight erotica a both good. There’s also a subset called “erotic romance” that has very graphic, hot sex scenes but a plot and character development, which I feel is the best of both worlds. Maybe somebody should start a Cafe Society thread and compare authors. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/32 "2004-01-26T04:41:02Z")
I’ll never forget that name, because it was the last porn (except Internet porn) that I read. Another reason I’ll never forget it, is there is a photograph I took of my wife probably 15 to 20 years ago of her asleep in bed and that book was on the book case in the headboard (Yes, it was waterbed, no, I don’t have it anymore). We would always laugh when we were looking through albums and saw that picture. E3 ---
**Author:** ![jellytoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/eb9ed0/32.png) [@jellytoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jellytoes)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/33 "2004-01-26T23:21:30Z")
Ohyes. I am a voracious reader and I love reading porn. At the sex shop I can pick up some little magazines that have porn literature in them and I have several compilations. I do prefer reading porn to looking at pictures. I definately need my brain engaged to get turned on. I still have a select collection of porn on video. But I get bored with it. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/34 "2004-01-27T01:21:29Z")
Yup, I read erotica, which is a fancy way of indicating that there is a story line involved…and I have had some stories published. I find the written word more erotic than pictures…and I’m a guy! Only on the SDMB would I ever admit this…my friends of 30 years haven’t a clue that I am an “author” ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/35 "2004-01-27T04:25:12Z")
I have two or three of Susie Bright’s " Best Erotica of 19— ". The short stories are all over the place. Some enthrall me repeatedly, some leave me strangely unnerved. The anthologies seem to have a reasonable selection crossing most if not all sexual tastes. I highly recommend them. The first one I bought was “VOX”. I dug that book. Plenty. I have a taste for visual porn, but some of the online stories I’ve read have left me not just aroused, but thinking about them for days. Thoughtful erotica. What a treat. Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Live\_Better\_Electrically](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@Live\_Better\_Electrically](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Live_Better_Electrically)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/36 "2004-01-27T04:45:09Z")
I’ve read erotica such as Anais Nin’s Delta of Venus and Little Birds, as well as most of Xaviera Hollander’s books. Then there are all the supermarket “scientific” books about sexuality that are, in effect, pornographic. Years ago I visited a regular (not adult) bookstore that had a big selection of '70s-era porn novels of the sort that I don’t think are being published anymore, although I guess I don’t know. The subject matter was really over the top. One that has stuck in my mind was titled Raped Niece. ---
**Author:** ![soulburnz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@soulburnz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulburnz)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/37 "2004-01-27T04:48:15Z")
> [@LunaSea](#): > > I greatly prefer written erotica. Anais Nin my my personal favorite. I used to visit Literotica, but it seems like it’s gone downhill in the past year or two. Anais Nin is one of my favs too… there are some great websites out there on her. I also agree Literotica has gone to hell lately. There is plenty good erotica out there you just have to dig. It’s hard to search for it because all you get is bullshit porn sites. There is one - White Sheets or something with sheets in it that has good recent things. It’s **Clean Sheets Erotica Magazine** - I just googled. **GorillaMan** mentioned the books containing illegal things that might be more difficult to buy in photo format… I think that is part of the draw for some. It reminded me of a bunch of books our neighbor gave us years and years ago… one of them involved Dobermans. Kinda looked at that neighbor in a different light… she “seemed” to be like an old maid. Who knew ? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/38 "2004-01-27T18:28:52Z")
I find the images to be better in text stories. ---
**Author:** ![chestnutmare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@chestnutmare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chestnutmare)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2004, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/39 "2004-01-27T19:02:50Z")
[www.Cleansheets.com](http://www.Cleansheets.com) is consistently good. [Literotica.com](http://Literotica.com) is inconsistent and since it is voluntary submission, I often find myself distracted by horrendous spelling, punctuation and grammar. However you quickly figure out which authors to avoid and which to seek out. [Sliptongue.com](http://Sliptongue.com) used to be better but I think the webmaster has found other interests because it is rarely updated anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2004, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082/40 "2004-01-28T14:19:39Z")
I’ve only read one porn book, _Sign of the Scorpion_. It was years ago, and I found it in a dresser in my parents room when I was younger. Anyone remember this book? I forget how it ended. Did they ever find the sister? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/porn-does-anyone-read-porn-instead-of-watch-the-videos/225082.md?page=3)