Not on the Coffee Table

Having spent the better part of my bank holiday weekend stressing about a present for tonight's Urban Santas - something creative, something fun and something not too expensive - I wish that my conundrum, like the Kinder Surprise mum's, could be solved by something as simple as an alu foil-wrapped chocolate egg.

But the adult equivalent of the Kinder egg is, of course, the coffee table book: Not that surprising, not that fun and sufficiently bland to be digestible by everyone. So every fall the publishers bombard us with books to suit every taste, just in time to be wrapped for Christmas.

This year's safe bets include the edgy Cobain Unseen, the stylish Vanity Fair: The Portraits, and Marion Bataille's clever ABC3D pop-up book, as entertaining for adults as for kids. And for those preferring something more local, then Swedish Barcelona transplant, Erika Lust is presenting her spicy take on a stocking filler tomorrow, Porno para mujeres.

The title is raunchier than the content - mostly good-humoured observations based on Erika's industry experience from behind the camera - but, if Erika has her way, it could well leave you with stickier fingers than if you'd gone to town on those Kinder eggs. Dig in.

Porno para mujeres - presentation 19:30h Wednesday December 10
Café Salambó, Torrijos 51, Gràcia

By SNo