It's a little late for the holidays, but some might say the gift of good sex is always worth giving, no matter what the time of year.

The updated "Joy of Sex," a modern take on Alex Comfort's 1972 tome, will finally be available in the United States in January after hitting bookshelves in Britain in September.

Reviving Decades-Old Legacy To understand what's in store for American audiences, flashback a few decades to when the book first came out-The "make love, not war" youth culture of the 1960s left mores in flux by 1972, when the titillating book, filled with a smorgasbord of illustrations of sexual positions, made a sensational splash in bookstores across the country.

"The Joy of Sex" -- its name evoking the best-selling cookbook with gastronomical subtitles like "appetizers" and "main courses" and "sauces and pickles" -- moved sex out of the porn shop and onto the bedside table. The book sold 8 million copies, according to the publishers, helping to fuel America's "sexual revolution."

The iconic cover featured a naked, bearded man pressing against his flower-child lover. And in the tone of the times, Comfort -- a British gerontologist with anarchist leanings -- offered tips on the art of lovemaking to a mostly male, heterosexual audience.