The sexiest book you've ever read? Come again?

As a follow up to its poll, the Times asked some writers, "What's the most erotic book you've ever read?'

Francine Prose replies, "The King James Bible."

She explains:

I have no idea how I learned to decode the language of the King James Bible, but somehow I understood what it meant when Potiphar’s wife tells Joseph, “Lie with me.” Or when David sees Bathsheba bathing. Or when Abraham “went in unto” Hagar and she conceived. I was mystified by Noah’s sons covering his nakedness, and by the Sodomites asking Lot to bring out the visiting angels so they could “know” them. But I knew it was hot.

Read more writers on sex in another article.