The Book of Vice : Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them)

Presents an evaluation of the culture of vice and excessive misbehavior, offering insight into the appeal and rewards of taboo hobbies and advice on how to indulge in covert activities while retaining one's dignity if discovered. Abstract: Hosting a dinner for three of the smartest porn stars in the world, the author asks the floor manager at the oldest casino in Vegas how to beat the house, and indulges in molecular cuisine at the Finest Restaurant in the Country. This title helps you to find out what exactly goes on in Vegas - and in less glamorous places. Read more...

Somewhere, somebody is having more fun than you are. Or so everyone believes. Peter Sagal, a mild-mannered, Harvard-educated NPR host the man who put the second "L" in "vanilla" decided to find out if it's true.

From strip clubs to gambling halls to swingers clubs to porn sets and then back to the strip clubs, but only because he left his glasses there Sagal explores exactly what the sinful folk do, how much they pay for the privilege, and exactly how they got those funny red marks. He hosts a dinner for three of the smartest porn stars in the world, asks the floor manager at the oldest casino in Vegas how to beat the house, and indulges in molecular cuisine at the finest restaurant in the country. Meet liars and rich people who don't think consumption is a disease, encounter the most spectacular view ever seen from a urinal, and say hello to Nina Hartley, the only porn star who can discuss Nietzsche while strangers smack her butt.

With a sharp wit, a remarkable eye for detail, and the carefree insouciance that can only come from not having any idea what he's getting into, Sagal proves to be the perfect guide to sinful behavior. What happens in Vegas and in less glamorous places is all laid out in these pages, a modern version of Dante's Inferno, except with more jokes.

Publishers Weekly

NPR host Sagal (Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me) offers a hilarious, harmlessly prurient look at the banality of regular people's strange and wicked pleasures. In the wake of the late-1990s obsession with other people's fun, notes Sagal, the hoi polloi have pursued their own indulgences, such as sex joints, swinging couples' clubs, gambling and pornography. He describes the three necessary elements of vice that distinguish it from sin and give it that irresistible frisson: social disapprobation, actual pleasure and shame. A buttoned-up journalist and family man, Sagal visits the respective dens of inequity, interviewing the principals in the name of research while preserving his academic irony, e.g., during the shooting of a hardcore porn sequence for Spice TV, he remarks of the actors: "I began to appreciate how very well Evan and Kelly did their work." Indeed, the dedicated hedonists, such as the regular joe habitués of San Francisco's Power Exchange or the normal-seeming couples who frequent the Swinger's Shack, face "the same problems of meeting supplies, logistics, expense versus income, and time management as does any warehouse foreman." Sagal is a terrific, lively writer, and while some of his segments are repetitive and stretched, he is admirable in humanizing the participants. (Oct.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

“NPR host Sagal offers a hilarious, harmlessly prurient look at the banality of regular people's strange and wicked pleasures.” —Publishers WeeklySomewhere, somebody is having more fun than you are.Or so everyone believes. Peter Sagal, a mild-mannered, Harvard-educated radio host—the man who puts the second “l” in “vanilla”—decided to find out if it's true. From strip clubs to gambling halls to swingers clubs to porn sets and back to the strip clubs (but only because he left his glasses there), Sagal explores what the sinful folk do, how much they pay for the privilege, and how exactly they got those funny red marks.“Deliciously funny.” —Chicago Tribune“Sagal's guide to excessive misbehavior and a life of vice touches on what he calls ‘imaginatively naughty things.'” —USA Today“In this investigation of our human frailty, Peter Sagal combines intellect, sympathy, moral perspective, and common sense to produce—of all things—laughter.” —P. J. O'Rourke“Sagal... charms readers with the same wit, humility, and observational prowess he uses to win over the dipso-, nympho-, and assorted other maniacs he encounters.” —Radar“Sagal drolly skewers human misbehavior as he reports on the making of a porn video, visits a CPA to the rich and famous, shoots craps, and partakes of a lavish multicourse dinner at Alinea only to leave hungry.” —Chicago magazine“The Book of Vice is the kind of book full of passages so deliciously funny that you keep elbowing the nearest person and saying, ‘Listen, I just have to read you this bit.'” —St. Petersburg Times Content: Author's note or Why I went to the Swingers' Shack, and what I found there -- Introduction, or Knit shirts at the Fetish Ball -- Swinging or Dinner parties gone horribly wrong -- Eating or Sodom's restaurant -- Strip clubs or Sure they like you. Really. -- Lying or this chapter will change your life and make you millions! -- Gambling or dice, cards, wheels, and other lethal weapons -- Consumption or How to keep up with the Joneses when the Joneses are insane -- Pornography or You can look, but you can't admit it -- Afterword or Waking up back in Kansas, and having to muck out the barn.

Somewhere, somebody is having more fun than you are.

Orso everyone believes. Peter Sagal, a mild-mannered, Harvard-educated radio host—the man who puts the second "l" in "vanilla"—decided to find out if it's true. From strip clubs to gambling halls to swingers clubs to porn sets and back to the strip clubs (but only because he left his glasses there), Sagal explores what the sinful folk do, how much they pay for the privilege, and how exactly they got those funny red marks.