- Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel.
I'm Hannah.
I like talking about sex and I like books
and so when I get to combine those two things
we're onto a winner.
Recently, and by recently I mean months ago
at the end of September, I was in Wigtown
which is a small village/town/place in Dumfries and Galloway
which is in Scotland, south west Scotland.
I was in Wigtown for their book festival.
Wigtown is Scotland's national book town.
It is the tiniest place in the world
and yet has dozens upon dozens of independent bookshops.
I have no idea how they sustain themselves
but it is wonderful.
I was there to talk about my book, "The Hormone Diaries",
and in between the events that I had I just went wandering
around lots of amazing, quirky bookshops.
It was a glorious time and I documented a lot
of the bookshops on my Insta Stories.
If you are not following my Instagram
you really should be following me on Instagram,
because then you would have known
about some of these books months ago
and now I'm finally making a video about them.
Have I read any of them yet?
Well actually, technically yes, one of them I read
during my degree so I've like already read it
but I never actually owned it.
Anyway, we'll get onto that.
So one of the bookshops that I went into
was literally called The Bookshop,
and it had these beautiful stone, like, spiral bookspines
like on the outside as like the entranceway to the bookshop
which is very cool, and they claim to be Scotland's
largest bookshop or Scotland's largest secondhand bookshop,
I'm not entirely sure.
I don't know whether it's like big in terms of space
or just like the amount of books that they have
'cause they have so many books,
and the owner of the bookshop, Shaun Bythell,
is an author himself as well and has written some books
about what it's like to be a bookseller,
"Confessions of a Bookseller", so he's like famous
in the bookseller, indie-bookshop world.
Also just in general, when I was going to Wigtown
my granny texted me, because she knew who he was.
She was like "ooh you must go to his bookshop", I did,
and actually it's in his bookshop where I found
all of these sexy, sexy books.
It's all secondhand, lots of antique, lots of vintage books
and there was a small erotic section.
I mean it wasn't even that small,
there were still like so many books in it
but compared to the railway section it was small.
These are the books that I bought (laughing),
so pleased with them.
I'm just gonna talk you through my sexy, erotic,
secondhand book haul.
Let's start with just the one on the top,
let's just make this easy for me.
We have "Fetish 101: Celebrate Your Fantasies",
and this is a Dita Von Teese on the front
and I mean, it does what I says on the tin.
This isn't one that I'm gonna read back to front
it's more of just like a "oh, flicking through"
like "number 25, domination and submission.
"Isn't so much of life all about this?
"Boss and employee, teacher and student,
"rich and poor, master and servant.
"Some like to give orders and others like to obey.
"Quite often such power exchanges can be used
"to reduce real-life stress, in fact,
"where would dominatrix's be
"without their businessmen clientele?"
I don't think I can show you lots of these images.
"41: Food.
"57: Harness.
"89: Vinyl."
Three is breasts and I definitely
can't show this on YouTube.
So there's this.
My little guide to fetishes.
Next, and I definitely can't show you
images from inside this book, "Male Nudes".
This isn't for me.
I bought this for my friend Callum.
Came over recently but I was like,
"I've not filmed the video yet so I need to keep it
"and then I'll give it to you".
It basically goes through all the different decades.
So it starts in the 19th century.
Wow, not even decades, we're going through centuries here.
Starts in the 19th century
and it's just like old-school photography, art, naked men,
and then 1900 to 1920 and all of those
and then just 1920 to 1940 and there's a lot of dick.
You know, there's some interesting photography.
Ooh I can show you this one!
No penis on this page.
Look at these, when are these from?
The 1990s, wow.
Aah, what angels, angels.
This is a gift.
Ooh it's coming up to Christmas.
I can tell him it's a Christmas present.
"Human Sexuality: Feelings and Functions".
A lifecycle book.
So this was published in 1979
and it feels like a bit of a textbook.
So like the contents is,
"How Do We Know What We Know About Sex?
"Cultural Themes in Sexuality.
"Sexuality Through the Lifecycle: Infancy and Childhood."
And then "Sexuality Through the Lifecycle:
"Puberty and Adolescence.
"Adult Sexuality.
"Sexual Arousal and Response.
"Performance Problems.
"Sexual Deviance."
Ooh, I wonder what it counts as sexual deviance in 1979.
You never know.
"Sexuality And You, A Personal Conclusion".
Ooh, there's some boobies.
I like it because, yeah, it is very textbook-y
and there's lots of pictures.
Speaking of the past, next we have ""The Kama Sutra"".
Yes, that is right.
This is the one that I have read some/most of
because I wrote about it in my dissertation at uni.
Fun fact, "The Kama Sutra" is not a book of sex position.
Oh no.
There are seven parts to "The Kama Sutra"
and only one of them is about sex.
It was translated into English from the original Sanskrit
in the late 19th century
and so it is like a sacred Hindu text.
If I'm correct, this is my understanding of it,
it's just generally about how to be a good citizen.
So like how to be the best person spiritually
and all of that good stuff.
And you know, sex.
Sex is important, sex is a part of all of that.
So the sections are, "Part One: Introduction",
just like how to be great probably, I don't know.
"Part Two: Of Sexual Union".
So this is where you learn about
all of the ins and outs of sex.
I actually did a whole video about The Karma Sutra
when I was at uni, so when all of this stuff
was a bit more fresh in my mind
and I will link it up there if you fancy watching
me through life six years ago, oh god.
"Part Three: About The Acquisition of a Wife" .
The book was aimed at men and yeah,
having a wife is an important part of that.
"Part Four: About a Wife".
Can't remember what the difference
is between those two chapters.
Now this one, "Part Five: About The Wives of Other Men",
and I have a funny feeling that it was teaching men
how to steal other people's wives
but then also how to make sure that your wife
wasn't stolen by someone else, but interesting nonetheless.
And then part six is about courtesans.
So yeah, I guess I can understand how people
can think the entire book is about sex
but a lot of it is just about relationships
and navigating society and then like the second part
is the bit where it's like,
"okay, you're gonna put your penis into the yoni".
But not like super like that.
It does have a lot of emphasis on pleasure,
which is great you know, great stuff.
But yes, this is my copy of "The Kama Sutra".
I never had a copy before because it's out of copyright
so I just read it online.
It's like on the archive.org or whatever.
I thought is was about time we have a physical copy.
Every sex nerd needs a copy of "The Kama Sutra"
on their bookshelf, right?
Look, promise you, no pictures.
No sex positions, it's all text.
Confirmed.
"The Kama Sutra" is not a book of sex positions.
Right, this one.
This is a beast.
You're like, "Hannah, have you gone mad?
"Are you ever going to read that?"
(loud exhaling)
(laughing)
I have an idea for how I would read it
but I don't know if that'll ever happen.
Look at this.
"Encyclopaedia of Sex Practise"
by doctors A. Willy, you can't write this shit,
L. Vander, and O. Fisher.
Okay, so in the preface it says,
"This book was originally published in the French language
"in 1933 and had an enormous success,
"and it has now been translated
"into several other European languages."
It's about 800 pages.
The writing is pretty small,
we've just opened it onto a page "The Sins of the Male".
You just know that this is going to be a riveting read.
I am just fascinated by old sex manuals
and like what people used to think about sex.
They kind of like were being progressive for the time
because they were studying it and treating it
as a serious topic for scientific study,
but also they were very much ideas of the time.
We would be like wow, that is so ignorant and offensive.
But at the time they were just like, this is life.
Ooh, and you read it in 2019 and you're like, eugh God,
this is bad and you kind of understand
why a lot of the stereotypes that we have about sex
and different people, different minority groups and stuff,
you kind of when you understand that these kinds of texts
were hugely popular, these were the sex science books
that were being written, you're like oh,
this is how a lot of these stereotypes
have been so pervasive, especially because as we (laughing),
as we open the contents page,
this is literally how it starts.
"Sexual art of primitive and other races."
Ooh, it's bad.
Literally chapter one, "Sexual Rights of Primitive Peoples",
and then chapter two is "The Hindus and Their Love Books".
And then section two is "The Erotic Life of Other Races"
and it literally has a whole chapter
for the yellow races.
I don't even know if I should say that.
Holy shit.
And then the next chapter is "The Islamic Peoples",
the next one is "The Jews."
I'm actually really intrigued to see
what it says about the Jews, as a Jewish person.
What are we like sexually?
Oh my god, oh my god.
So it like, takes you through the other races
and the primitive peoples, and then the next section,
"Sexual Civilization of France".
And as I said, it was originally published in French,
these are French authors, and they're like "ah ha,
"the primitive peoples and us, the civilised French".
"Sexuality and Children, The Sins of Youths.
"From Adolescence to Manhood.
"Woman's Sexual Impulse", oh my god and then section one is,
"The Normal Woman".
I can't show you this because she's naked
but it's like a drawing of a woman doing like a bridge,
like on her back, but her hands aren't on the floor
it's just her head and her feet holding her up
and then the caption is,
"characteristic attack of severe hysteria".
I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to read this,
what my plans are for reading this.
I have this one idea, but again I have all sorts of ideas
all the time and hardly any of them ever come to fruition
but basically I was like what if I found a friend
who wanted to read this with me
and then we kind of do a like, "My Dad Wrote a Porno"
like podcast style thing where we like read through
each sections and discuss.
But I don't know if it would be too offensive.
I don't know whether it would actually be really hurtful
because of some of the horrible things
it might say about minority groups.
Let me know what you think.
Should I read this 800 page antique sex book?
It's only from the 1930s, not even 100 years ago.
"The Kama Sutra's" probably more woke
and that is hundreds of years old.
People still say woke, I don't know.
Anyway, we have another book.
It's not all about that big, old antique
that I just spend forever talking about.
"Sex and Sexuality", I think we might need
to cover this lady up.
So this one I'm really excited about.
This one obviously again is not something
that you would read cover to cover
because it's what it says, it's a book of quotations.
Pick a theme, go on, go, give me a theme, give me a theme.
Oh, contraception, interesting,
interesting theme choice there.
And then it just has a whole bunch of different quotes
from people around and about contraception.
I've not read this before but I've literally seen
a quote from Margaret Sanger.
She is an American birth control activist
and sex educator in the 20th century.
"Withdrawal has an evil effect
"upon the woman's nervous condition.
"She has not completed her desire,
"she is under a highly nervous tension,
"her whole being is perhaps on the verge of satisfaction.
"She is then left in this dissatisfied state
"which is far from humane."
Oh my god, brilliant.
Here's a great quote.
It's not really a quote it's more just like
a one liner joke by Spike Milligan
from "The Last Goon Show of All" 1972,
"contraceptives should be used
"on every conceivable occasion"
Ba dum tss.
Anyway, it's great.
Let's pick a different theme.
Come on tell me, what theme do you want?
What theme?
Come on, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, uh huh.
Oh, sexual fantasies, great theme.
Oh, let's do Richard von Krafft-Ebing
from "Psychopathia Sexualis", 1886.
This was another book that I read parts of
for my dissertation.
"She accepted her conjugal duties nearly
"as a matter of unavoidable necessity.
"Her only condition was that she should be
"in the upper position.
"In this position, she obtained a sort of gratification
"for she imagined his body to be that of a beloved woman
(gasping) "in the lower position!
"Female charms never attracted him.
"Coitus was only possible when aided
"by the thought of a beloved man".
So, here we have a man and a woman having sex
with each other but the man fantasising about it being a man
and the woman fantasising about him being a woman.
I love this shit, I love this shit.
I'm having a great time.
Well, I hope that you had as much fun
in this video as I clearly did.
Thank you so much for watching,
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Thank you so much for watching
and I'll see you in my next video, bye.