“Got a Minute?” Erotic Book Review
“Got a Minute?” is a Cleis Press book of erotic stories that is edited by Alison Tyler. The book follows traditional Cleis Press formating. The book includes 60 stories in 222 pages. That’s quite a lot of stories! The book also includes a foreword by Thomas S. Roche, and as the book’s cover shows a picture of a couple embracing and kissing, the cover is not very discreet. I still read it out in public, but you have to be careful about keeping the cover hidden while reading it.
“Got a Minute?”‘s tagline is “60 Second Erotica”, and as you could guess, the theme of this book is the fact that all of the stories are very short and straight to the point. It seems like the stories are really intended to be read in short bursts as each story is very short, and when the tagline says “60 second erotica”, it does mean it! A lot of the stories could easily be read under a minute. A couple are a bit longer, but they all are much shorter than your average erotic anthology story length. Aside from the short length, the stories don’t seem to share much of a theme.
I must say that I’m not usually a fan of short-story erotica, and in this case, that still stands. I just find that I can’t “get into” the story because I really love to get attached to a character or a plot. When it comes to quick reading like the stories in this book, I really don’t find that the plot is flushed out enough for me to really love the characters enough to find them arousing. Some of the stories, definitely, are arousing, but as a whole, I just wasn’t all that moved by the rest of the collection. It really isn’t the collection’s fault, though, and if you are someone that loves your erotica short, sweet, and to-the-point, this collection certainly has some possibility for you.
I think the place were books like these shine is for out-loud reading. Personally, a 10-page erotica is just a bit too long for me to want to read a lot of them to my partner or just to say them outloud. However, when it’s only two or three pages, things are just so much more manageable. The short length, while not very productive to getting sucked into a plot or falling in love with the characters, works wonderfully when you just want to read something dirty to your partner. Even if you read slowly, you can easily read one of these short stories out-loud without anyone getting bored.
The sex in the stories is pretty good. I found that some of the stories tended to “cut out” before the really good parts or they’d gloss over the good stuff because of the shorter word limit. That was disappointing. However, they functioned more as a “tease” than “get-you-off” stories. Some of the other stories really had much more detail in them, and they tended to be the ones I preferred. Again, it’s just your preferences as to what stories you’ll like. Here are some of my favorites:
In “Gloria” by Jordan Castilo Price, you read about the main male character who has made his “business” in a small, discreet room with a hole cut into the wall. His lips and chip stick out from the wall, and like a glory hole, women pay him for his oral services while he remains nameless on the other side of the wall. It’s a very unique story, and the author writes in such a way that it’s easy to imagine.
In “Every Night” by Jeremy Edwards, the husband and wife have set up a system. The wife has a special pair of pajama bottoms that have a hole cut in the back. When she wants to have sex, she wears those. When she doesn’t, she’ll wear her regular pajama pants. While this story isn’t very high in sex, it is a sensual look at the couple’s erotic habit.
In “Transformations” by Jen Cross, the main character talks about her lesbian (butch) lover who is magically transformed into a soft, feminine woman when she is in her bed. She talks about their sex life and how she sees the girlfriend in her bed, but the story also talks about how the butch woman escapes to leave to the gym right after each encounter. This one is unique because it describes the sex well, and it also describes the woman very wonderfully. It’s a good, erotic story.
Overall, “Got a Minute?” is a good collection, but it really is going to depend on your preferences. If you love short erotic stories where there isn’t much plot development, this book could really be up your alley. The stories are really varied, and in this book, you get 60 different plots and 60 different quickies that are written by a multitude of authors. While it isn’t for me, if you like the shorter erotica stories or you want a book of erotica that is perfect to read out loud to your partner, this book can definitely be it. Thanks to Cleis Press for sending “Got a Minute?” to me.
The Erotic Reading Review is a regular column written by Kayla. This column brings you reviews over erotica, instructional, and other types of sex-related books.
