A recommended reading list, spanning leather history, skills, relationships, psychology, and community.

The list

• Authentic Kink: Create Your Best Experience · Princess Kali · Erotication Publications · Various kinks, women voices · Buy on Amazon
• Black Men in Leather · Cain Berlinger · Adynaton Publishing · Leather, POC-centered · Buy on Amazon
• The Brainwashing Book: Hypnotic, Erotic Behaviorism and Beyond · sleepingirl · Independent · Erotic hypnosis · Buy on Amazon
• Building Open Relationships · Dr. Liz Powell · Psychology, poly and non-monogamy · Buy on Bookshop.org
• The Color of Kink: Black Women, BDSM, and Pornography · Ariane Cruz · NYU Press · POC-centered, women-centered · Buy on Amazon
• The Deep Psychology of BDSM and Kink · Douglas Thomas · Routledge · Psychology and mental health · Buy on Bookshop.org
• Deviations: A Gayle Rubin Reader · Gayle S. Rubin · Duke University Press · Queer and kink culture, sociology · Buy on Bookshop.org
• The Ethical Slut · Janet W. Hardy and Dossie Easton · Ten Speed Press · Buy on Bookshop.org
• Flogging · Joseph W. Bean · Greenery Press · Impact play, dominance and submission · Buy on Bookshop.org
• The Heart of Dominance · Anton Fulmen · Dominance and submission · Buy on Amazon
• KINK IS: True Stories about Sex, Power, and Joy · Various · Unbound Edition Press · Various kinks, POC, women, and trans voices · Buy on Amazon
• Kinky NLP: Neuro-Linguistic Programming for Erotic Hypnosis · sleepingirl · Independent · Erotic hypnosis · Buy on Amazon
• Somatics for Rope Bottoms · Natasha NawaTaNeko · Rope, bondage · Buy on Amazon
• The Leather Couch: Clinical Practice with Kinky Clients · Stefani Goerlich · Routledge · Psychology and mental health · Buy on Bookshop.org
• The Leather and BDSM Handbook · Vincent L. Andrews · Adynaton Publishing · Leather, dominance and submission · Buy on Amazon
• The leatherboy Handbook · Vincent L. Andrews · Adynaton Publishing · Leather, dominance and submission · Buy on Amazon
• Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice · Mark Thompson (editor) · Daedalus Publishing · Various kinks, POC and women voices · Buy on Amazon
• Leather Mentorship · J. Tebias Perry · Independent · Leather, BDSM, POC voices · Buy on Amazon
• The Mayor of Folsom Street: The Auto/Biography of "Daddy Alan" Selby · Jordy Jones · Fair Page Media · Leather, various kinks · Buy on Amazon
• Mind Play: A Guide to Erotic Hypnosis · Mark Wiseman · Erotic hypnosis · Buy on Amazon
• Painfully Obvious: An Irreverent Manual for Leather/SM · Robert Davolt · Daedalus Publishing · Leather, BDSM, various kinks · Buy on Amazon
• Playing Well With Others · Lee Harrington and Mollena Williams · Greenery Press · All genders and sexualities, various kinks · Buy on Bookshop.org
• Principles of Leather Leadership · J. Tebias Perry · Independent · Leather, BDSM, POC voices · Buy on Amazon
• Raw Desire · Sir Pusckatt Pumera Onyx · Noire Ascendant · POC-centered, dominance and submission, leather · purchase link pending
• Sodomy Gods · David Lauterstein · Unbound Edition Press · Various kinks · Buy on Bookshop.org
• Surviving Transphobia · Laura A. Jacobs (editor) · Jessica Kingsley Publishers · Trans-centered, POC voices · Buy on Amazon
• Urban Aboriginals: A Celebration of Leathersexuality · Geoff Mains · Leather, history · Buy on Bookshop.org
• The Master's Manual: A Handbook of Erotic Dominance · Jack Rinella · Daedalus Publishing · Dominance and submission · Buy on Amazon
• Different Loving: The World of Sexual Dominance and Submission · Gloria Brame, William Brame, and Jon Jacobs · Villard · Dominance and submission, reference · Buy on Amazon
• Jay Wiseman's Erotic Bondage Handbook · Jay Wiseman · Greenery Press · Bondage · Buy on Amazon
• Carried Away: An S/M Romance · David Stein · Fiction, S/M · Buy on Amazon
• Redefining Normal: A Modern Gay Man's Guide to Happy and Healthy Living · Brent Heinze · Gay life, wellbeing · Buy on Amazon
• Ask the Man Who Owns Him: The Real Lives of Gay Masters and Slaves · David Stein and David Schachter · Master/slave, D/s · Buy on Amazon
• Diary of a Thought Criminal · Mark I. Chester · Photography, leather · purchase link pending
• Black Gloves White Magic · Tim Brough · Leather, fiction · Buy on Amazon
• Leathersex Q&A · Joseph W. Bean · Daedalus Publishing · Leather, BDSM · Buy on Amazon
• The Killer Wore Leather: A Mystery · Laura Antoniou · Cleis Press · Fiction, mystery · Buy on Amazon
• Leather and Latex Care · Kelly J. Thibault · Daedalus Publishing · Gear, care · Buy on Amazon
• Between the Cracks: The Daedalus Anthology of Kinky Verse · Gavin Dillard (editor) · Daedalus Publishing · Poetry, anthology · Buy on Amazon
• Beneath the Skins: The New Spirit and Politics of the Kink Community · Ivo Dominguez Jr. · Daedalus Publishing · Leather, community, politics · Buy on Amazon

Not recommended

• The Leatherman's Protocol Handbook · John D. Weal · Nazca Plains. This book is highly disputed by many leathermen who survived the AIDS era and remember the pre-AIDS era of leather culture. It describes a lot of things as fact that were more fantasy, or that may have been true for a single bar but were not widespread, and it speaks of traditions that were never really held to. It is included here so it is named, not endorsed.

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