Society conditions us to believe that we should hide or be ashamed of our desire to read stories about the sex lives of others. That’s precisely why erotic literature has been relegated to the status of a “dirty book.” But we at DirtyBooks.com would like to propose that we take the term back for ourselves and celebrate it.
For one thing, what’s so bad about a little dirt? Remember when parents were taught to keep their children impeccably clean and make them wash their hands every time they came back inside? Well, now doctors know that is a very bad practice. Kids need to be exposed to dirt to build up their immune systems.
Perhaps it’s a bit of a stretch to extend this same logic to sexuality, but we firmly believe that adults need to be exposed to the sexual practices of others in order to keep their own sex lives healthy and interesting. And that is precisely the value of a good old fashioned dirty book. It gets your creative juices flowing… in more ways than one!
Secondly, why must a story that involves sex immediately be considered low-brow? Is sexuality not as equally valid a topic as gardening or quantum physics? The whole hierarchy of legitimate subjects versus illegitimate subjects is absurd. All subjects are worthy of our focus!
Is not the most important thing to be reading a book for which you have genuine interest?
And lastly, is not the most important thing to be reading a book for which you have genuine interest? What is the point of forcing yourself to read a book because you’ve been told it will be good for you or it will expand your mind, if you don’t have intrinsic interest in it? The more you enjoy the words on the page, the more they can touch you and transport you to new places. That is the magic of the book at work!
Take back control of your reading list
So the next time you feel pressure to read something that isn’t genuinely what YOU want to read, stop and say, “no thanks.” Then take a deep breath and let yourself dream a bit, let yourself land on a book that is really what YOU want to read, not what your friends or family or college professor thinks you should read.
And that, in a nutshell, is the purpose of this site. We hope you can find just such a book here among our curated library. But if not, don’t worry, we will take no offense. In fact, if you find a dirty book that you like more than what you see here, please let us know. We are always looking for new suggestions!