This book purports to be a "serious" study of the film and video pornography industry, but is not sufficiently well-written to satisfy this claim. While it may synthesize some information not easily available elsewhere, it appears to add precious little in the way of original research. Ford, a journalist who specializes in writing about porn, seems to feign objectivity while secretly desiring to be an apologist for the industry; this conflicted approach succeeds only in watering down his prose beyond the point of interest. The narrative is scattered as well, moving haphazardly between the general, the anecdotal, and the statistical. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)