Hot Centerfolds on the Centerfold Blog

We live in a world awash in sexual images. Television. Internet. Movies. MTV. The visual rules. Yet, the sacred combination of ink and paper still has the power to rock your world.

If reading is thinking with someone else’s brain, then erotica is feeling with someone else’s body parts. With that in mind, we set out to find the books that arouse the most. We limited our search to novels (perhaps we’ll tackle memoirs and manuals next), focusing on works of fiction marked by frank language, candor and enthusiasm. Body parts are named and interwoven in ways that arouse, linger and channel your own desires. Some titles were famous for being dirty books for decades, contraband smuggled in from Paris. A few were champions in the courts, books that freed the language. Some tackled taboos. Others showcased attitude — either curiosity or humor or energy. To us, they are the ultimate love stories.

The Top Ten are as follows:

1. Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill), by John Cleland (1748-49)

2. Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D. H. Lawrence (1928)

3. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller (1934)

4. Story of O, by Pauline Reage (1954)

5. Crash, by J.G Ballard (1973)

6. Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice (1976)

7. Portnoy’s Complaint, by Philip Roth (1969)

8. The Magus, by John Fowles (1965)

9. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami (1995)

10. Endless Love, by Scott Spencer (1979)

Complete List. Literature fans can also view covers and read a synopsis, excerpt and brief history of each novel.