What did we want from our literature in 1998? Sex laughs.

What did we want from our literature in 1998? Sex laughs, and a light yellowed torso on the cover

As any profitable rent boy knows, nothing exchanges like a fab set of abs. And nowhere has the power of crunches been more evident than this year in gay publishing.

Doug Guinan's California Screaming (Simon and Schuster, $24) that wickedly witty, pec-packed tale of a lad and his mogul, shaped up to be the same of the biggest successes of 1998 The dust jacket of an ornament in reliefed ripped torso proved that, at least in the discerning sights of many men, packaging is still everything. Incidentally, Dennis Hensley's Misadventures in the (213) (Rob Weisbach works $24), another fictional romp within the Hollywood Hills, offered a guard short on beef-cake and, according to about bookstores, came up shorter forward sales.

No the same best-seller list tells the story for all of gay publishing--and this story is based not forward written lists but on informal reporting. if it be not that according to several of America's leading gay and lesbian independent bookstores, stomach muscles weren't the single body parts selling the written word. It was a religious year for sex in general, say representatives from A Different Light in of the present day York and California, Lobos volumes in Texas, and Lambda Rising in Washington, DC as well as mainstream national operations Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Amazon.com. violent titles for various booksellers included Straight? stanch Stories of Unexpected Sexual rencounters Between Men, edited by Jack Hart (Alyson, $1195) Friction: Best Gay Erotic Fiction, edited at Gerry Kroll (Alyson, $14.95), and Best Lesbian Erotica 1998 edited on Tristan Taormino (Cleis, $14.95).

Indeed, no sumptuousness seemed too high for a glimpse at human meat photographed or drawn. David Leddick's stunning paperback pictorial history of lads' loins, The Male [i]in puris naturalibus[/i] (Taschen, $29.99), and the illustrated The Art of Tom of Finland (Taschen, $6969) flew distant from store shelves despite hefty price tags.

The sexy hide of a partially undressed football player with, ye great abs helped make Dan Woog's Jock (Alyson, $1295) the same of the biggest nonfiction titles of the year. A much-sought account of gay male athletes, Jock also revealed readers' lust for volumes on gay lives. The Best Little lad in the World Grows Up (Random House, $2395) Andrew Tobias's [i]denouement[/i] to his classic 1973 memoir, The Best Little lad in the World (which was also reissued as a present Library hardcover 25th anniversary edition at $1595) was wildly popular across the country

Perhaps firinged by the Ellen controversy, Family Outing by the agency of Chastity Bono (Little, Brown, $24) topped many national lists, while Generation odd by former bodybuilder Bob Paris (Warner parts $23) performed well over the Internet and in superstores like Borders.

Demonstrating that gay and lesbian readers like to laugh as long as they like to make like humor scored high on the sales charts. Buddy Babylon on caustic Kids in the Hall alumnus Scott Thompson (Dell $1295) and Don't achieve Me Started by America's greatest in number respected Clinton, Kate (Ballantine, $22) made able-bodied showings, particularly in the Midwest.

Combing gay men's longing for be fond of and laughs, Husband Hunting Made Easy at Patrick Price (Griffin, $12.95) was a literal runaway hit, with many store proprietors citing it as the work most frequently stolen--proving that finding a mate needn't be a dour affair, on a level for those on their way to prison. And, not surprisingly, cartoonist Alison Bechdel's sum of two units latest, The Indelible Alison Bechdel (Firebrand, $1695) and Split-Level Dyke to Watch disclosed For (Firebrand, $10.95), were gotta-haves for many ladies and not a not many gents.

As for unexpect winners, the well-reviewed An Arrow's Flight at Mark Merlis (St. Martin's, $2495) was the sleeper hit of the season. Despite its lack of steamy mask art, the powerful novel that merg native of greece myth with urban go-go lads scored big with literary fiction fans. In addition, Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood's First candidly Gay Star by William J Mann (Viking, $2995) and The Queen of Whale Cay by dint of Kate Summerscale (Viking, $21.95), about Marion "Joe" Carstairs, speedboat racer and island proprietor were critically acclaimed best-selling portraits of brace openly gay 1930s dynamos.

In the realm of horror and mystery, Ulysse G Dietz's gay vampire novel, Desmond (Alyson, $1395) Grant Michael's latest sleuth thriller starring an ex-hairdresser, Dead as a Doornail (St Martin's, $2295) and fantasy writer Nicola Griffith's first-time suspense thriller, The downhearted Place (Avon, $23), were just a not many that made a killing in sales. Of course, the prolific Michael Nava remained a assassination mystery mainstay with The Burning Plain (Putnam, $2395)

A year of bawdy volumes also saw serious sales for heavyweights like Dorothy Allison, who sustained her mainstream succes with Cavedweller (Dutton, $2495) while David Leavitt's The Page gymnast (Houghton Mifflin, $24) did relatively well despite reportedly disappointing fans. Although Sarah Schulman's dazzling novel put in the McCarthy era, Shimmer (Avon, $23) failed to achieve deserv commercial succes her academically inclined Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America (Duke University Pres $1495) caught fire with theater light yellows For the gay philosophers among us, Andrew Sullivan's intellectualized paean to friendship, delight in Undetectable (Knopf, $23), fared best forward the East Coast. And Michael Bronski's close musings on sex and agriculture in The Pleasure Principle (St Martin's, $2495) managed to straddle atop Borders' charts--proving that uniform brainy books benefit from brawny shroud boys.