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One Reddit user has posted the first page of a 1944 edition of the Kama Sutra, a sexy book that was quite restricted in the middle of the 20th Century.

You can read the “Conditions of Sale” notice in the image embedded above, but here’s a transcript: “The sale of this book is strictly restricted to the members of the medical and legal professions, and to students of psychology and sociology. This publication is sold for their personal use only, and in no case should be lent or given away to others for obvious reasons.”

Follow this link to download a free eBook copy of the Kama Sutra. All these restrictions have been lifted on the Kama Sutra, a book by Vatsyayana that contains poetry and advice on sexuality.

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What’s the Kama Sutra without erotic illustrations? A new version of the 1,600-year-old Hindu text has been polished to focus more on love and relationships. Penguin UK will publish it as a text-only pocket-sized handbook next February.

The Telegraph explains: “[T]he new version, written by A. N. D Haksar, an Indian scholar and a leading translator of Sanskrit texts, will include updated chapter headings such as ‘Making a Pass,’ ‘Why Women Get Turned Off,’ ‘Girls to Avoid,’ ‘Is he Worthwhile?,’ ‘Getting rid of him,’ ‘Easy Women,’ ‘Moves towards sex,’ and ‘Some Dos and Don’ts.’”

Last year we wrote about the audiobook version of the famous sex manual. Beautiful Books published it last summer. British actress Tanya Franks narrated.

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According to the Toronto Star, a book-reading application created for the iPhone by James Montgomerie was rejected by Apple. "Eucalyptus: the library to go" would have allowed users to read free classic literature available at Project Gutenberg. Montgomerie was told that his application was rejected because of a policy which prohibits applications that include "inappropriate sexual content."

Apparently the approval team at Apple had managed to view an unillustrated translation of the Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, an ancient text which explains love and sexuality.

According to MacWorld, Apple has changed its mind.

Read all about the Eucalyptus controversy at Jamie Montgomery's blog. Eucalyptus YouTube ad.

Join us in reading banned and challenged books. The Banned Book Challenge continues until June 30. Set your own goal.

I just got an email from Teller pointing me to http://www.pennandteller.com/03/coolstuff/tellersmacbethindex.html
which is the part of the website which is just Macbeth. It also includes NPR interviews and details on the whens and wheres (Red Bank NJ and then Washington DC).

I'm more or less happily writing Chapter Six of The Graveyard Book. I say more or less as I'm at that place where I hope that the book knows what it's doing because right now I don't have a clue -- I'm writing one scene after another like a man walking through a valley in thick fog, just able to see the path a little way ahead, but with no idea where it's actually going to lead him.

Want to read something really cool? Something beautifully written that's all about art and blood and magic and horror? And Shakespeare? And the theatre? Something that's about the enthusiasm of art? The joy of putting talented people together and building something that hasn't been done before? About making people see things that aren't there? About lying in the service of art?

Honestly, you do, even if you think you don't.

Trust me.

Go to http://www.pennandteller.com/03/coolstuff/tellerspeaks/telleressaymacbeth.html

Read it.

Then click on Back at the bottom , which takes you to http://www.pennandteller.com/03/coolstuff/tellersessays.html
and read forward, an entry at a time, as Teller blogs the year of creation of a magical, bloody production of Macbeth. Take your time. It's like reading a good book.

(Teller, who is an astonishing magician, and a remarkable magical thinker, is also one of my favourite writers, and he is chronicling what he describes as, "one of the most joyful times of my life." I really want to see the production.)

Someone has come up with the perfect solution to making sure unwanted ideas and viewpoints are supressed. If one doesn't agree with a book, there is always the option of stealing it, so that others are not exposed to whatever it is one disagrees with. At least that seems to be the sentiment of JoAn Karkos of Lewiston, Maine among others, according to a recent story in the Morning Sentinel.

Three books which deal with human sexuality are missing in action. The Kama Sutra has disappeared from the public library in Mt. Vernon. Missing from the Lincoln Middle School library in Portland is a copy of It's Perfectly Normal, a children's book on the body's development and What's Happening to my Body?, a similar book, has vanished from Penquis Valley Middle and High School library in Milo. JoAn Karkos, Lewiston, Maine checked out copies of It's Perfectly Normal, from the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries. While she has refused to return the book, which she considers pornographic, she has sent a $20 check to cover the loss to each library. In Lewiston, she is looking at a court fine while she has lost her library privileges in Auburn.

But don't worry, the rest of the readers are now "safe" due to this woman's actions.

We received a great tip this week from Crooked Timber about The Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century by István Hargittai. Apparently, Charlie Munger, recommended it at the Wesco Annual Meeting. Hargittai’s book tells the story of five brilliant men born at the turn of the twentieth century in Budapest: Theodore von Kármán, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, John von Neumann, and Edward Teller. Below is an excerpt from the introduction to the book.

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