Kama sutra 365 by DK Publishing - review by Kissaki

The back cover proudly exclaims, "How to be sensual, spiritual, physical, erotic, exotic, ecstatic ... every day of the year." How could anyone pass up such an offer? Based on the title alone, one would assume that Kama Sutra 365 contains 365 sexual positions based on the ancient writing of the Kama Sutra - and you would be partially correct. There are 365 positions, not necessarily unique, illustrated in this book, but not all of them were inspired by the Kama Sutra. As indicated in the introduction of the book, the positions presented in the book claim to be derived from the Kama Sutra as well as other erotic classics, namely the Ananga Ranga, the Perfumed Garden, as well as various Taoist writings. The introduction also provides a brief description of each of these texts.

The table of contents is listed below.
Introduction
Grooming and massage 1-9
Embraces 10-21
Passion builders 22-27
Kissing and caressing 28-41
Congress of the mouth 42-50
The Kama Sutra 51-130
The Ananga Ranga 131-182
The Perfumed Garden 183-274
The Tao 275-360
Conclusions to love 361-365
Perfect Positions
Acknowledgments

Oddly enough, the individual sections are not separated by any kind of the heading page to let you know that you are reading from the positions derived from the Kama Sutra versus those derived from the Ananga Ranga. In order to figure that out, you have to take note of the position number and then flip back to the table of contents.

Each position of the 365 positions is showcased on its own page with a prominent photograph of a couple demonstrating the position. Under each illustration, is a brief description of the position and two additional comments labeled "Divine moment" and "Pure nirvana". Based on the fact that all of the couples depicted in the book consist of one male model and one female model, the publisher appears to be marketing this book toward heterosexual couples.

The pictures are the high point of this book. They are well done and clearly illustrate the key aspects of each position. As far as erotic literature goes, the pictures are on the tame side, on par with what you may find in an R-rated movie (bare breasts and butts, but no exposed male or female genitalia). There is one thing that annoyed me slightly regarding the pictures, which is the expression that each model has on his or her face on almost all of pictures. They have their mouth open and their eyes shut. It looks rather contrived. It reminds me of the scene in "Office Space" where the one guy at the BBQ is talking about showing a girl his "Oh" face.

The description provided below each picture adds little additional useful information as it typically describes exactly what is depicted in the picture. For example, the position called "Ascending Position" shows a picture of a man lying on his back with the women sitting in a lotus position on top of him. The attached description is "She sits cross-legged on top of his prone body." There is no information given as to the benefits and drawbacks of each position or why one might want to try a given position, such as that it allows deeper penetration or greater g-spot stimulation, etc.

The other two comments (divine moment and pure nirvana) very occasionally provide some small helpful hint but more often than not I found them to not provide any useful information. At times it seemed like the person writing was bored and was trying to fill space on the page because every position needs these two comments to keep the format of each page consistent. One of the best examples is for the position called Crouching Tiger. The position involves the women bending over with her feet together and placing her hands on the floor and the man standing behind her in a kind of standing doggie-style position. The Divine Moment suggestion for this position is "Do it when you get home drunk." Granted, this position doesn't require the greatest amount of balance to achieve compared to some in the book, but if you’re drunk and your balance is impaired, trying this position it such a state may not end well.

While the book does provide 365 positions, the positions are not always very unique. For example, Crab Position and Five Triangles. Both positions feature the woman on her back with her legs together and her knees drawn in to her chest and the man is kneeling on top of her with his hands placed on her thighs. The difference is in the Crab Position the woman has her hands folded behind her head and in Five Triangles she has her hands placed on each of his biceps. There are several additional instances of minor differences between some of the positions throughout the book. I can only assume that this is a product of trying to come up with one position for each day of the year.

Like most sex position books that I have encountered, this book has its share of positions that look like more effort than they are worth. Many of these positions look similar to Yoga poses but with someone humping the person doing the pose. For example, the position title "The Dome" is essentially the woman doing a chakrasana or wheel pose and the man humping her from a kneeling position. As doing a wheel in yoga class is its own special challenge, we opted not to attempt this one.

The book has a soft cover and is only slightly larger than a standard paperback book measuring 5-3/8" by 6-1/2" and almost an inch thick. There are 384 pages, 365 of which contain the positions. Each position is depicted with a glossy color photograph of a couple engaged in the position. Kama Sutra 365 is written on the cover in 1-1/4" tall letters with a couple of pictures below the title which depict a couple entwined in an embrace, therefore I would not consider it to be all that discreet.