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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Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 48303
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060843829
Dewey Decimal Number: 179.8
EAN: 9780060843823
Publication Date: October 1, 2007
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Condition: Brand new book. Not a remainder.
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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...
 Intelligence and Wit are rarely this much fun! January 2, 2008
Michael Meredith (St. Louis, MO United States)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
It's taken a while for someone to come out with a worthy counterpoint for William Bennett's Book of Virtues, but Peter Sagal makes the wait worthwhile (or should I say the Wait, Wait.. ?).
My contrived attempt at humor aside, The Book of Vice is a far more enjoyable read than most attempts to explain and rationalize or criticize the various vices of our times. Never straying from the intelligence that is a hallmark of his "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me" show on NPR, Sagal manages to package information about what some might regard as "the dark side" of human nature into a bemusing recounting of his research into the things that drive the cash to and from the likes of Bill Bennett, anonymous swingers, conspicuous consumers, and other gluttonous souls with far too much money and time. Along the way he makes a number of observations (substantiated or not) regarding trendsetters with roots in the Midwest (don't laugh, get us past the Rockies or the Appalachians and we just might surprise you) and other cultural influences. He also (either knowingly or not) provides ample evidence that he is married to a wonderful saint of a woman, Beth, who accompanies him on his research.
For those of you with more prurient interests, you're going to be disappointed. Yes, they attend a party at the Swingers's Shack. No, they don't indulge in anything more than conversation and innocent observance of the uh... mingling. In the area of gastronomical vice the Peter/Beth duo become a little more participatory, and I would have loved to be seated at the next table as Peter interviewed three female porn stars while Beth chatted enthusiastically with each of them about non-biz type topics. But it's all interesting, and it might surprise some readers to discover that the more you know about some vices like polyamorous sex, gambling, conspicuous consumption and pornography, the less likely you might be inclined to indulge in them (okay... some of them).
Some of the erstwhile revelations aren't all that revelatory actually; casino gambling is stacked in favor of the casinos, strippers really are interested more in the money than their customers and being rich doesn't always mean that you know the best ways to spend money.
But through Sagal you'll meet some very interesting (and yes, nice) people. Some who've learned lessons and evolved away from (or deeper into their vices), and others that simply manage to put things into a perspective that makes sense at least for themselves. With that in mind, I'd like to offer a special nod to Ms. Nina Hartley. Thanks to Peter Sagal, I can now appreciate you for your mind as well as your appearance!
As fun as its title suggests October 25, 2007
Debra Hamel (TwitterLit.com)
12 out of 13 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
More about virture than vices October 21, 2007
Michael P. Maslanka (dallas, texas United States)
20 out of 21 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
 I wish he dove a little deeper March 18, 2008
Ryan (Redwood City, CA USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Entertaining read - I only wish Sagal wasn't such a prude. I'd like to read more of an insider's view, rather than that of an outsider looking in.
A Light-Hearted Look at the Subject April 14, 2008
Eclect (Boulder, CO)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you only know Peter Sagal from his radio show "Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!", you may be slightly surprised at this book. It contains much of the humor he brings to the show, although of course not the ad libs, but beneath the light-hearted facade is an exploration of behavior patterns our society views as vices and portraits of people involved in them. If you don't know Sagal at all, you may be disapointed in the book, as it is NOT a dry, scholarly study.
Three of the seven topics involve sex, which perhaps reflects current American pre-occupations reasonably well. However, he omits our fascinations with lethal weapons and with violence generally, which also figure considerably in our entertainment (espeically television, movies, and video games). The manifestations of his selected vices tend towards the middle and upper classes.
The book is well written, and much of it is a first-person account of Peter's (and, often, his wife's) field work in the various subjects. Professional sociologists will be put off by the light tone, but may find some useful anecdotes nevertheless. The rest of us can derive some voyeuristic pleasure from seeing how the other half lives.
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