The Ultimate Guide to Kink is the first major guide to BDSM in a generation—a bold and sexy collection of essays that run the gamut from expert how-to tutorials to provocative essays that delve into complex questions about desire, power, and pleasure. The book brings together diverse voices from the kink community in an unprecedented way: each chapter is written by a different sexuality/BDSM educator. Divided into two sections, the first section features thorough, thoughtful pieces—on everything from flogging to bondage—packed with techniques and beautifully illustrated with original images from artist Katie Diamond.
Review
In my quest to read books that have been sitting at the bottom of my Kindle library for awhile now, I stumbled across The Ultimate Guide to Kink: BDSM, Role Play, and the Erotic Edge edited by Tristian Taormino. I had even forgotten that I had purchased this book. I feel a bit stupid for ignoring this book for so long because it really is a fantastic book for anyone who is interested in BDSM or kink. After seeing some of the authors who contributed essays for this book, some I was more familiar with than others, it’s like hitting the jackpot. Not just because of who the authors are, but the various topics that are covered. While this book is composed of essays that aren’t very long and can’t cover everything on some of the topics you’re definitely gonna want to do some more research on, great starting off point for sure.
Before I started reading this book, I looked through the table of contents and was quite shocked to see what some of the topics covered were. There’s everything from anal fisting to impact play to role playing to how to mindfu*k someone. I love, love, LOVE the wide variety of topics and the people who write about these topics know what they’re talking about. Some of the authors who I am familiar with are Laura Antoniou (The Marketplace series author), Midori, Mollena Williams (The Perverted Negress), and Lee Harrington; just to name a few.
The book is broken up into two sections. The first being skills and techniques which cover the how-tos of impact play, both vaginal and anal fisting, bondage, tantra, and several other topics. The second part of the book, fantasies and philosophies cover things like role playing and various specific types of role playing, essays on being a submissive and a female dominant, as well as essays on masochism and sadism. My favorite essay, Submissive: A Personal Manifesto by Madison Young appears in this section and, in my opinion, is a must read for female s-types.
In a way, this book seems like it’s mainly for dominants, especially the first section of the book being about skills and techniques, activities that are mainly carried out by dominants, but I feel like any s-type would be missing out if they skipped the first section and only read the fantasies and philosophies section. I’m a big believer that s-types and bottoms need to understand what’s happening to their bodies as certain activities are being carried out. This is a great book for any dominant and s-type to have in their library of nonfiction BDSM books. At the end, there’s a great resource guide that includes books and videos by the authors of the essays as well as regional organizations, events, and websites. Also included is an about the contributors section and ways to learn more about these individuals.
