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Ulysses' Shopping Mall

By shopping here, you help make the website (hopefully) cost-neutral for Ulysses. The below titles have all been bought by Ulysses himself and are personal recommendations. More titles will be added over time.

NEW Section with stuff about Writing down below!

BOOKS - Fiction

Venus In Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch . This is the book that arguably kick-started the whole femdom genre. Ulysses read it in one feverish, masturbatory night when he was 13. A true classic and must-read for anyone with a passion for femdom, this is the story of the 19th century noble Severin who longs for the perfect woman to submit too. He finds her in the beautful Wanda. What starts as a consensual, romantic encounter between the two soon develops into a nightmare of cuckoldry, torture and abuse for Severin. But his infatuation with the cruel woman only deepens.

Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki. Businessman Joji creates his very own Pygmalion in Naomi, a beautiful, provocative teenager. His attempts to mold her into the perfect woman backfire, and he ends up in total submission to the girl. An elegant and rich experience delivered by one of Japan's most gifted writers. Note that you won't find any hard action in this book. Only a very good mind-fuck.

BOOKS - Non-Fiction

The Mistress Manual: A Good Girl's Guide to Female Dominance by Mistress Lorelei. This classic was out of print for a while. It's a good thing that it's back as it is one of the few introductions to femdom that is written by a woman for women. If you're a guy looking for something to help ease your mate into a femdom role, this may be your best shot. It does a great job at opening and explaining our world, and leads on to more advanced topics such as a discussion of archetypes of dominant women. There are five of them according to the author - nurse, disciplinarian, amazon, queen and goddess - and reading about and discussing them will definitely promote better understanding between domme and sub.

The Art of Sensual Female Dominance by Claudia Varrin. An excellent complement to the above Mistress Manual. This book has lots of great ideas for domestic games. I loved the "panty cocktail" for which the domme stuffs her used panties into the slave's mouth, then pour swater (or whatever else she can think of) on top, et voila! There are plenty more ideas that you'll appreciate. This book also offers insights into a pro-domme's life and should give plenty of pointers to subs on the in's and out's of D/s. Yet, like the Mistress Manual, this book focusses on domestic relationships, not the S/M scene.

DVD/VIDEOS

Note that by default the below DVDs are encoded for Region 1/NTSC, in other words meant for the North American market. Video tapes by default again are NTSC format which means for North America, Japan and a few other countries that use this format.

Never Say Never Again (DVD) There aren't many videos I'd consider must-owns. The rewind factor has got to be pretty high. This film has it. Barbara Carrera plays the unforgettable super-bitch Fatima Blush who almost kills James Bond. The real kicker are the scenes in which she handles her captive at the clinic. And she is such an eye-candy to follow around with her extravagant wardrobe and arrogant looks! Also available on VHS video tape

Faster Pussycat Kill Kill (VHS) Russ Meyer's femdom B-movie, shot in black and white, has Tura Santana and her gang touring the desert and beating up people. They are very sexy and very violent. In one ultra-violent scene Tura beats the crap out of a guy, then breaks his neck. All in full view, no funny angles, no phoney moves. Quite pricey for a VHS tape but again, the rewind factor is high. If you have the choice between spending $50 for one of those IBN or Joan Wise videos, and $60+ for this one, take this one. You'll be better off.

Romeo Is Bleeding (DVD) Finally to be re-released on disc in March 2002! This one is in the same league as Never Say Never Again. Lena Olin plays that hit woman who screws up one rotten cop's life for good. She is gorgeous and soooo bad.

America 3000 (VHS) What a find. I had this tape when I was a teenager and rewound and rewound a couple of fight scenes until the tape smoked! You won't find many films where men get beaten up like in this one. Very sexy. Never mind the story.

NEW - On Writing Stories

This section is for all those of you who are thinking of publishing their own stories and yet have little experience in writing. If you are planning to submit a story to me, please also note my comments on that.

Stein On Writing by Sol Stein. This is the book I recommend the most. It is quite dogmatic around structure of a story but very good at explaining character development and lazy vs. fresh language. I have read several books on creative writing - this one is the best.

On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft by Stephen King. This is the antidote to Sol Stein's dogmatism. King explains here how the writer must excavate the story that is already there. This half an autobiography, too, and a pretty good read in any case.

The Elements of Style by Strunk & White. Still the reference on good grammar and diction.

The American Heritage Dictionary (paperback). Ulysses is not a native speaker of English and thus has abundant experience with English dictionaries. This one is imho the best. It is suitable for both native and non-native speakers. There is also a hardcover version including a CD-ROM. I have an older version of the CD-ROM and like it. Unfortunately it looks like the latest CD-ROM version is way worse than the previous one. Probably best to buy the paperback now and wait for the next edition with a hopefully improved CD-ROM.

Roget International Thesaurus Indexed Version. This is the best Thesaurus I know. I recommend you buy this indexed version as opposed to the unindexed paperback.

Good reads

You learn writing not by reading CRAP but by reading the good stuff. Here are ten of Ulysses' favourite non-erotica. Every one of these is entertaining, every one a masterpiece. Don't even think of getting one of those horrible "abridged" versions. As Stephen King says in the above book: they suck.

The Best Of Roald Dahl Bizzarer, more entertaining short stories you won't find.
The World According to Garp by John Irving. Makes you laugh and makes you cry.
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. A superb vampire story.
A Man In Full by Tom Wolfe. A story of the American dream, hehehe.
Ambush At Fort Bragg in Hooking Up, also by Tom Wolfe. A riot of a short story. The rest of the book is non-fiction but highly relevant to all writers. Wolfe explains his idea of the "journalistic novel".
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. An almost forgotten classic of science fiction.
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. Not quite so forgotten classic.
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. The first of the Philip Marlowe detective stories. An absolute must.
Our Man in Havanna by Graham Greene. A classic spy novel - tongue in cheek.
The Spy Who Came in From The Cold by John Le Carre. Another espionage classic, with absolutely no tongue in cheek.