We recently asked the the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about the book that sparked their sexual awakening. Here's what they said.
I was only young when I read it and hadn't realised what sexuality or eroticism really was. This book opened my eyes to passion and loving people as a whole rather than by limiting yourself to particular sexes or genders.
– Vicky Messam on Facebook
It was passed around like contraband between the girls at my school and I can't honestly say that I ever read the actual book, just a few choice passages!
– alih26
I was 11 when I read it the first time and I wanted to be a boy and be in their gang and have them as friends. Then I read it again at 13, a confused mess of hormones with no outlet, and I knew I really wanted to make out with a fictional character (Sodapop Curtis, yeah yeah).
– Nina Childish on Facebook
If you have a sweet spot for secret love affairs this book is for you! Between the heroine, Bliss, and her slow-kissing professor, Garrick, you will not be able to put this novel down. Here's a taste: "We were pressed together so tightly that I could feel every plane of his body, but still I wanted to be closer." Talk about losing it...
As a 14-year-old budding gay bear cub who'd had a pretty sheltered upbringing in rural England, the fantasy of two all-American blue-collar straight cowboys going at it was impossibly erotic. To this day I'm still waiting for a cowboy to invite me to share his bedroll…
– tomkw
Lena and Kostas's entire relationship, and of course just general descriptions of Bridget and her romantic conquests.
– Elizabeth Kramer on Facebook
I read it over a sleepless, anxiety-inducing 48 hours because I couldn't get enough of the plot, but DAMN, the sex scenes. I even flagged them with Post-it note descriptions in a friend's book for her so she could get straight to the good stuff. My personal favorite is "post-raid rock sex in front of 20 sleeping men".
– Liana Rudin on Facebook
It's one of the first books I ever read where it was obvious the characters really loved each and there were emotions involved in the love scenes. In most books it's just a physical act.
The Crossfire Series by Sylvia Day. Actually, anything Sylvia Day has written. You can't get more than a few chapters in any of her books without being turned on like a faucet. I'd really recommend her Dream Guardian series but she's only gotten the first two out and hasn't been able to come to an agreement with HarperCollins about finishing the series. I recommend it, but only if you want to wait indefinitely to finish it…
The way he described a woman pulling up her tights: "But then she was not awkward, she was slow-flowing, graceful, seductive – a seductiveness that had nothing to do with breast and hips and legs, but was an invitation to forget the world in the recesses of the body."
– Marijn Ceelen on Facebook
It's a retelling of the Hades/Persephone story, really well-written and interesting and with the added bonus of lots of super-sexy sex. The first of a trilogy – can't wait for the others!!
Strangely enough. Ellen Brody and Hooper's brief affair set off fireworks in my brain. It started off as very sensual and suggestive and then it went to raw and passionate. I was both thrilled and scandalized by it.
– Ann Catherine Hughes on Facebook
The first time I came to a sex scene in the book, I was reading it on my break at work. Suffice it to say, things got uncomfortable. I learned not to read them at work any more. Sookie as a character is much more complex and likeable in the books, and I loved seeing how strong and blasé she was about this new life full of vamps and other creatures. And she sure loved getting some vamp tail! A special woof goes out to Eric in the books.
That woman does not hold back when it comes to anything sexual in her books. If you haven't had the chance to read them, I highly recommend it.
"I like my body when it is with your body" was the most erotic writing I have ever encountered, and yet phrased in such a way that it turns the subject matter (sex, it's literally just about sex) into the most pure and lovely thing imaginable.
I FELT something deep inside me when Cath and Levi started making out on his sofa…
J.R. Ward is so fucking amazing!! Lover Unbound is and will always be my favourite book ever – it is steamy and heartbreaking and just hits you in all of the feels.
I first read it in a bookstore when I was about 13, and later on I stole it from my mother's bookshelf. It wasn't the most realistic or romantic introduction to sex, but I found the jokes (there are many) and the cynicism of the heroine enormously funny. If only Fanny wasn't quite so obsessed by penis size!
– study
The Princess Diaries series! Michael and Mia's relationship always had me dreaming of the day I'd find my own boy to write scandalous diary entries about.
It helped me realise that not everyone fits in the little box marked straight or gay, and it's OK to want to have sex with people just because you think they're attractive.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.