Nerve. The First Ten Years - book discontinued by Chronicle Books - review by crushemall

Multiple authors litter this book—from photographers, seasoned sex writers, amateurs, and saucy bits of fiction.

Nerve.com—the ground-breakers in honest yet sexy writing. This book includes material from 1997 to 2007, a great history of Nerve's edgy and erotic material.

If you've never heard of Nerve, go there. Now. Don't be put off by the idea of interviews, essays, fiction—this isn't Cosmo. They've done their research, and by that, I mean they have actually *done* the research—themselves. It isn't pure crap re-spun over and over (ahem, Cosmo, anyone?)—this is edgy, sexy, honest, material that hits you right where it hurts (or feels good).

The book is divided by year, but you can flip through and open it up at any page to start. All the essays and articles are less than 4 pages, so they're short enough to hold interest and long enough to sustain quality material. There are personal sex diaries, erotic photography sprinkled throughout(which is the best part of this book—I clipped several photographs to frame myself, although there are disappointingly few large ones), and saucy bits of sensual fiction as well.

The longer articles have little sidebars, such as "sex advice from cowboys" and "sex advice from republican activists" to keep you going (and coming!). Some of the material is laugh out loud, some thought-provoking, and some gets you running to your pants zipper.

This large, hardcover coffee-table book comes in a pink (yes, NEON pink), plastic slip cover that has the word NERVE cut out in slits on the front. It is see-through, with a naked woman on front and naked man on back, peeking through the edgy, pink cover. It's a great design and made many of my friends pick it up.

The table of contents divides the book by year (1997-2007), with photography and the articles labeled with page numbers.

The actual layout of the pages is very artistic and aesthetic. Photography is littered throughout, in various sizes, in articles and on full spreads. Side bars and titles keep the flow interesting and visually pleasing. Because this is such a large book, the margins on top are about 3 inches, so when you're reading an article, it doesn't feel like you're reading a text book (although what a text book this would be!).

I would highly recommend this for any Nerve fan, or sex-literature and photography fan in general. It's a great gift, it's aesthetically pleasing, and has great, short articles that make the size of this book less daunting.