Three things made this book stand out for me. The cover, which matches a welcome understatement (compared with most books on this topic) with a sense of humor that matches the writing. The writing, which delivers every tip with a twinkle in the eye. And the brightly colored lay-out, which remembers the one thing that, again, a lot of the books on the subject forget. This is not rocket science, and it's meant to be fun. And until some brave and enterprising publisher gets round to the How To... blowjob pop-up book, well this may not quite be the most fun you can have with your mouth closed, but it's certainly a great conversation piece.

And how do I know this? Because I just had one such conversation. Which went something like this.

"Oh my god, I can't believe they publish books about that?" Followed by an abrupt shift of subject, while a placemat was laid over the offending tome. Or, perhaps, the alluring tome? I'll probably never know. But I will be sneaking a peek at her own bookshelf the next time I'm visiting her apartment.

Sex advice books have always struck me as a peculiar proposition, in that the people most likely to buy them are the ones who are least in need of them; and the people who maybe should have a shelf full are the ones who would never go close. Okay, I'll modify that thought a little; there are certain shall we say "more esoteric" activities... tricky ones involving external stimuli... anything that comes with an instruction manual... where a little bit of light reading beforehand is probably essential. Another friend of mine once suggested Cliff Notes for Clitorises as a worthy project as well, especially if it could be distributed around every frat house and locker room in the land.

Blowjobs, though? Does anybody really need lessons in that?

That's for you, the reader, to answer, but it might also be this book's greatest contribution to the literature, because it admits as much. For the first timers or uncertain among us, it offers reassurance; for the more experienced, it rounds up a few ideas you may not have thought of. Things like... no, I'm not going to go there in case you already know that trick, and write off the rest of the book accordingly.

The book's main message, however, is not so much how to give a mindblowing blowjob, but how to blow your own mind while giving it. Because that is the key, and that is what too many authors and other authorities seem to lose sight of, the idea that you are doing all this for him, and his pleasure is the only goal. So bring him a beer and switch on the football while you're at it. The point is to have your own fun while you're doing it, and maybe if more people looked at giving blowjobs as a joy in itself, then maybe... oooh, I was going to say there'd be a lot less demand for books like this, but I kind of answered my own question there, didn't I?

But that is the gist of this book, and that is why it's going to stay on my coffee table when other friends come over. Because my visitor today would probably die if she knew, but when I came back from making coffee, and taking a phone call from the kitchen, I noticed that the placemat was facing the other way. And the book that was laying beneath it had moved a few inches as well. Almost as if someone had picked it up for a surreptitious browse while she was alone in the front room.

Hmm. I'll probably never know that, either.