Well, OK. It was Valentine’s Day. But I’m not going to feel too bad about missing most of it because I’m fully with Lorenz Hart on this one: Each day is Valentine’s Day. And that goes in both directions: If you have someone you love and cherish, no need to set aside one particular day to celebrate that. And if you’re lonely or unhappy… hell, you don’t need to wait for a day when everything’s all wrapped in the colors of viscera and Pepto Bismol. Surely you can feel bad any time. Some of us don’t have mothers on Mothers’ Day, or fathers on Fathers’ Day, or money on Christmas. We’re all disenfranchised somehow. So whether you’re a Valentine’s Day lover, hater, or agnostic, my advice is to not worry about it. Read something good instead.

However, if I were going to pick up a little reading material specifically to celebrate things amorous, I might just go with Steve Almond’s newest smut erotica collection, Writs of Passion. These are a set of small books of stories and essays that have appeared in Tin House, The Normal School, Playboy, and Best American Erotica, among others. Almond likes writing about sex, and he does it well:

because, as a writer, I’m interested in the loss of control, in the danger of forbidden thought and feeling, it strikes me as utterly foolish—just from a practical perspective—not to write about sex. Why skip over the part almost guaranteed to teach you something new about yourself?

Taken individually they are lovely little objects, but all six fit together to form a naughty mosaic that is most definitely not safe for work, so don’t even think about clicking through if you’re in the office. But in the privacy of your own home, with a loved one or without, these might be just the thing.

And yes, I’m aware that these are limited editions, supposedly only available through the end of today. However, Almond supplies his email in the Rumpus article, so perhaps if you write and grovel a little you might be able to coax a set out of him. After all, each day is… right, you got it.