11 erotic coffee table books we love for seduction on demand
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time to read 5 min
Published Dec 6, 2021
need a little seductive reading? flip through these erotic coffee table books
A sexy life isn't some switch you flip when it's time to have sex. It's sex time **flip switch, lights dim, cue the grindy beats**, you're on. We believe a life of pleasure starts with surrounding yourself with an ambiance of pleasure. The art that fills your walls, the erotic books on your coffee table, the candlelight throwing shadows across your space, the incense that stirs you, little provocations that hit your radar and stoke your senses throughout the day and night. When the mood of your rooms reflects what moves and ignites you, you're already immersed in sensuality.
That's why we love keeping stacks of sexy, sultry erotic coffee table books in sight, so you can immerse yourself in pages of suggestion whenever you want inspiration or a mood shift. They're literally desire at your fingertips. Our cult favorites are below, but it's worth spending way too much time curating your own reads. Consider it a far better alternative to doom scrolling (and one with a far sexier ROI).
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David LaChapelle's Artists & Prostitutes
This insanely massive, collector's edition work of art is a sexy, subversive celebration of Dave LaChapelle's career. (With signed copies housed in an enormous clamshell box, even the presentation is as maximalist as the photographer's style.) Nearly 800 pages of over-the-top pop culture, hyper-sexy celebrity shots and in-your-face suggestion, it's less of a coffee table book and more of a coffee table event. Only 2,500 copies made, so your best bet at scoring one may be scavenging a sexy great aunt's estate sale. Otherwise, when one surfaces, expect collector's prices.
Madonna's SEX
Put this in your erotic arsenal when you to channel your inner sensual muse. Like Madonna herself, SEX is (still) controversial. Too much shock value. Too basic. We say consider the context: This was a cultural lightning rod of the '90s teeming with stunning images, iconic cameos and social commentary. Yes, it's random, chaotic and deliberately provocative... that's the point. High-brow literature? No. Dangerous images from an icon? Yes, yes, yes.
David LaChapelle's LaChapelle Land
LaChapelle Land is like taking an acid trip through David LaChapelle's mind. Every image feels unexpected, hyper-alive and just a little unhinged. So, yes, you might scan the pages thinking, 'There's no way I'm going to do that sexy thing tonight, but spend enough time inside this surreal, saturated world and something is going to rub off. Sometimes the biggest turn on is creativity by osmosis.
Phaidon Editors +Rowan Pelling The Art of the Erotic
If you've ever wondered how erotic art has differed and evolved over the past few centuries, consider this erotically charged book your visual map. Its both subtle and saucy, discreet and raunchy, while proving once again that art, like sex, is all about your personal taste. And regardless of your proclivities, these pages will stretch your definition of eroticism, while showing you all the creative ways artists have explored sexuality over time.
Dian Hanson's The New Erotic Photography
When you think of "nudes," what comes to mind? Erotic art from the masters? Your grandfather's pornos stuffed under a mattress? The New Erotic Photography lands somewhere in the middle, proving today's sultriest images hit those same lustful notes through an entirely modern lens. From tasteful to tacky, artful to unabashedly smutty, it's a sultry romp through contemporary modern photographers and the wildly different ways they story-tell about sex. Whether you're a voyeur, an intellectual or a lover trying to get in the mood, it's got you.
Mendo + Iman Whitfield: #Sendnudes
What started as a meme (#SendNudes) has ended in the sultriest way possible: a collection of nude photography centered around the female gaze. Populated with images from photographers around the world, this erotic photo book shows the female body in a different light... uninhibited, real and beautifully embodied. If you don't have a coffee table, buy one for this book.
Jennifer Baritchi and Rob Alex's The Big Black Book of Sex Positions
Every stack of coffee table books has that one book that's not exactly a coffee-table size. This one's your outlier, and if you've already burned through the Kama Sutra and still need new ideas, you deserve an uneven display of big erotic reads. It's full color, it's oversized, it ranges from missionary to BDSM, and with at least one move that's worthy of pulling a hamstring. If nothing else, leave it open when guests arrive and see who bites.
Amir Marashi, Roxane Gay, Erica Jong: A Woman’s Right to Pleasure
There's something both infuriating and exhilarating in a book called A Woman's Right to Pleasure. Infuriating that a woman's pleasure needs defending or explaining or justifying as long as it's hidden within a book; yet exhilarating when you see the antidote inside. Graphic, vivid and visually intoxicating, these pages explore pleasure without permission.
Vince Aletti and Bruce Bellas' Bruce of Los Angeles: Inside/Outside
There's something so deceptively innocent about the men in Bruce of Los Angeles: Inside/Outside... the sun, the skin, the deliciously sculpted bodies, oiled to perfection in all of the mid-century splendor. But in their time, these images weren't as free as the pages capture. What we love is that very juxtaposition: just outside the image frame, these shots were taboo and dangerous, yet Bruce their freedom. Its visual proof that you can't hide what's inside (and why should you?) and when a photographer's job is to capture the soul, that freedom shines through.
David Leddick's The Male Nude
It's playful, provocative, subversive and quite literally the male gaze on the male body. Spanning 300 years, The Male Nude is both a celebration of the body and a history of how we've looked at it, desired it and depicted it. Turns out, the naked man never goes out of style.
Robert Mapplethorpe's The Photographs
We won't try to diminish beauty so hypnotic that its transgression sneaks up on you. Let's just say it's worth your time to do your own exploring. Disclaimer: This is not a study to conduct in public.
Helmet Newton's Sumo
Because not every erotic coffee table book needs to read like horny homework, may we recommend Newton's gloriously excessive Sumo. This art-library of sultry images is as chicly confronting as they are fashionably nude. We love it because it's a reminder that sex is art is fashion is culture. And if that's not erotic, what is? Note: This book should come with an inheritance. If yours hasn't arrived, book a date-night pre-game at a sexy library.
Taschen/Dian Hanson Tom of Finland
All the erotic fantasy, zero apology. Think impossibly muscular men in leather, uniforms and denim held together by hope and a prayer: Please, God, let this fabric slip down one more inch.
Tell us what erotic coffee table books are on your wish list....
