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| The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (and How to Do Them) | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter Sagal
Publisher: HarperEntertainment
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 82369
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060843829
Dewey Decimal Number: 179.8
EAN: 9780060843823
ASIN: 0060843829
Publication Date: October 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 More about virture than vices October 21, 2007
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
While this is nominally a book about vices, it is really a book about virtues, and it is an effective one: there are no lectures, no finger wagging a la Bill Bennett, no holier than thou passages. The chapter on lying savages those who bald face lie, taking apart Holocost deniers and Kerry defamers and both presidents Clinton and Bush. The one on consumption is a thoughtful review of evolutionary biology (we are wired to display the fruits of our wealth; it helps with a female finding a mate that will ensure the genes get passed on; who knew:waste is sexy) and how this wiring--- once useful --- now makes us do nutty stuff , like paying millions for celeb musicians to play at sweet sixteen parties. The chapter on swinging reminds us---as with many of the vices---that, as Shaw remarked, there are two great tragadies---one not to get your hearts desire , the other to get it. Sagal reminds us, in the end, not to get too worked up over what we think we don't have that others do, to be grateful for the small things, and to understand that a life without tempting vices is a life well worth living
 A great vicarious romp that leaves you glad to be virtuous October 16, 2007
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
While the subtitle is a bit misleading (it really should be "Very Naughty Things (and why you shouldn't REALLY want to do them after all)", this book is enormously fun, especially - but not only - for those already familiar with Sagal's sarcastic wit and extraordinary verbal dexterity. He's sort of a perverse, Ivy League version of Milo leading us through the Phantom Tollbooth to the Lands Beyond Expectations. You couldn't ask for a better guide, especially since he lets you feel like it's really okay to be missing out on the swingers clubs, strip joints, casinos, etc.
As fun as its title suggests October 25, 2007
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
Peter Sagal is the whip-smart host of NPR's news quiz show Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fans of the program will be delighted to learn that Sagal is also now the author of a deliciously titled (and even more deliciously subtitled) exploration of iniquity: The Book of Vice: Very Naughty Things (And How to Do Them). The book is as fun as its title suggests.
Sagal discusses a different vice in each of the book's seven chapters--though sex looms as the dominant theme of three of them--dropping keen observations while describing his research into the subject at hand. For his first chapter, for example, on swinging, Sagal and his wife Beth observed the goings-on at a weekly swinger's party. He describes the logistics of the operation--the uses to which the various rooms of the place were put--while trying to understand the nature of the Lifestyle: becoming emotionally attached to the people you have sex with is not the done thing, for example, yet people who are in it only for the sex are apparently frowned on as well. In the end Sagal finds that he is not cut out for swinging himself:
"We are told, via their occasional interviews in the press, that swingers or Lifestylers or whatever are no different from you and me...they meet up to socialize, talk, drink, and dance with their good friends, old and new. And then they have sex with them. Which makes me stop, and consider the various good friends my wife and I have, and then consider how it would be if one of our suburban dinner parties ended with us removing our clothes and performing sexual acts, and I have to put my head between my knees and take deep breaths."
Elsewhere in the book Sagal writes about strip clubs and pornography. For the latter chapter he visits the set of a live, call-in sex show. (The stars of the show perform whatever acts their caller prescribes while a roomful of camera operators and lighting guys and directors watch, rather bored, from behind a thick glass partition.) Rounding out the book are chapters on gambling, eating, conspicuous consumption, and lying.
Sagal is a charming and funny guide through these particular avenues of sin. Maybe if you've done the things he describes--the $500-a-pull slot machines and 24-course dinners (that leave you hungry for Jack-in-the-Box), lap-dancing and lying and live broadcast sex--you'll find the book humdrum. For the rest of us armchair sinners it's pure pleasure.
-- Debra Hamel
 Snide attitude and limited subjects make this book not all it could be, but slightly worth a read February 2, 2008
11 out of 16 found this review helpful
The title of this book certainly draws you in. It's always interesting to read about the seamier side of life, and wonder how people actually get INTO doing those things! But this book really isn't the answer to many questions. It looks at a very limited number of areas, and specific cultures within them---eating at a very high end restaurant, attending a swingers club for one night without participating, viewing the filming of a specific sort of adult movies, etc. It's certainly not an overview. However, what is written about still could be quite interesting, and sometimes is, but the writing is marred by a smarty-pants, looking-down-on-others attitude. For example, Sagal has NO understanding of the appeal of gambling and pretty much laughs his head off at those who would waste their money that way. I am sure most gamblers know the house wins in the end, but it still can be fun to watch the slot machine swirl knowing there's even a CHANCE of winning, if you only spend a limited amount---and Sagal doesn't get this at all. He subtly makes fun of almost everyone he meets, for example, repeatedly mentioning how a adult film star is staring into space during a meal. He has a few odd writing habits, like mentioning almost everyone's height as soon as they are introduced.
Overall, not a BAD book---but not really one that adds any knowledge or understanding to the world of vice!
well written and irreverent October 16, 2007
9 out of 19 found this review helpful
NPR radio host Peter Sagal provides an amusing look at the behavior of people when they indulge in vice vs. virtue. He makes a point that vice is not sin, but actually socially accepted as long as one follows the military practice of don't tell. For instance the porn industry rakes in billions, but has no customers (try surveying their tastes with a questionnaire). Gambling is illegal in much of the country, but how much is bet on Superbowls and World Series. Whether it is Chicago, San Francisco or New York, Mr. Sagal insists vice is the perfect supply and demand model that should be used to explain economics; as the demand goes up the supply increases, etc.
Well written and irreverent yet relevant with Congressmen finding their supply of vice in workhouses and bathrooms while pushing virtue legislation on the rest of us hedonistic pleasure seekers, readers will appreciate this witty look at vice. Although some of the anecdotal seem padded with reiteration (for instance Mr. Bennett's gambling vice vs. his family values virtue goes on and on and on) this is a fun look at America's pleasure domes with the people the author interviews coming across as you and me.
Harriet Klausner
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