I see myself described as a ''book tragic'' in a public relations blurb for the launch of a very useful pamphlet telling people where Canberra bookshops are to be found. I thought I had disposed of such nonsense.

I am a book rescuer, who holds worthwhile books in trust for others, or for a later day, particularly one when people have come to appreciate good books again, to read and regularly consult, of course, and sometimes to giggle at.

There are plenty of worthwhile books around, although it seems to me they form an ever declining proportion of the number of books being published, one of the reasons why I spend most of my money on older books, and sometimes pamphlets or less literary items, such as cookbooks, old textbooks and instruction manuals is for the way they describe other worlds, other times and ways of thinking which now seem quite strange. They tell us where we come from.

Sometimes literally, as well as metaphorically.

It was in this spirit I recently picked up a number of sex-education pamphlets issued by the ''Father and Son Welfare Movement of Australia (Inc Mother and Daughter Section)'' sometime in the 1950s. I am always on the lookout for material which I can read, po-faced, to my daughters. For example, The guide through girlhood (''a reliable booklet for young Australian girls''), A guide to womanhood (''a reliable sex-education booklet for young women 15 years and over'') and Just Friends (''a practical guide to boy-girl friendships'').

None of these contain the well-known advice, familiar to convent-goers, about girls not wearing patent-leather shoes, lest boys see the reflection of their knickers. Indeed, on matters physiological, they are frank and sound, and those who absorbed it (and who endured what I imagine to have been the excruciating public mother-daughter lectures) would not have been as ignorant as some of that generation later claimed. Contraception does not rate a mention (although the fear of unwanted pregnancy and the dreaded risk of catching a sexually-transmitted disease does), but that is on the basis of strong advice about abstinence before marriage, and the assumption that a happily married couple will want and love all of the children with whom God blesses them. Female homosexuality gets a considerable, if very disapproving run. A good deal of it is a deconstructionists' dream, assuming that deconconstructionists dream.

Heaven forfend that I should say that any of its advice is wrong. Or unsound, even if some of it might these days raise an eyebrow. The giggle-making thing is not the general content but the implicit assumptions about ideal life, and the thought of expressing oneself so in giving good advice to one's daughters.

Here's some general advice about kissing and holding hands with boyfriends, not a bad thing in itself, one of the pamphlets thinks: even if ''seeking such pleasures indiscriminately, just for the sake of the pleasing sensations, is mere flirtation, and is selfish, unwise and dangerous.

''One thing leads to another and each time it is necessary to go a little further to retain the thrill. In this way a couple soon find themselves handling each other's bodies intimately, to use a colloquial phrase, 'necking and petting'. Such conduct is calculated to arouse the strongest feelings and passions...

''Men do not merely differ from women physically; their whole mental or psychological outlook is different. Failure to understand these differences is another cause of difficulties for young people. It is very difficult for a girl to realise just how prominent the whole matter of sex is in the life and thinking of a man.

''This does not mean that every man is a wolf. It is just that he was intended to take the initiative in these things and the very way in which his body is made and functions makes him aware of sexual sensations and desires to a far greater extent than is the case with a normal girl.

''His sexual desires may seem to be surprisingly easily stimulated. Even a rather low-cut dress or the feeling of holding a girl close to him may be sufficient to give him a very decidedly sexual stimulus.

''The ability to excite these desires in a man is a part of the thrill of being a woman and in its right place it is very satisfying. However if a girl uses lightly this ability that is given her as a woman, she not only cheapens herself in the eyes of men in general, but she is also making it very difficult for the man to exercise the control over his own feelings that most decent young men earnestly desire.''

The manual contains a little check-list for young women to consider before they decide to pay special attention to a particular member of the opposite sex. I am thinking of having it reprinted as an aid to the interrogation of my daughters:

''Have I a deep sense of respect for the person in whom I am interested?

''How would this friend fit into my home surroundings and I in theirs?

''How would this friend fit in with my other friends of both sexes?

''Have we sufficient interests in common to provide a basis for a life-long companionship?

''Are our outlooks on life and religion so dissimilar that they can never be reconciled?

''Am I sufficiently serious in my intentions to justify tampering with another's affections?''

I have never been able to abide even a moment of watching Sex and the City, but I have a feeling that it would not have persisted long as a series had the gals in it used this checklist.