Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
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List Price: $24.95
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Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
Written By: Mary Roach
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 612.6
EAN: 9780393064643
ISBN: 0393064646
Label: W. W. Norton
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2008-04-07
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Studio: W. W. Norton
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Editorial Reviews for Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
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The best-selling author of Stiff turns her outrageous curiosity and infectious wit on the most alluring scientific subject of all: sex.
The study of sexual physiology—what happens, and why, and how to make it happen better—has been a paying career or a diverting sideline for scientists as far-ranging as Leonardo da Vinci and James Watson. The research has taken place behind the closed doors of laboratories, brothels, MRI centers, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs, and Alfred Kinsey's attic.
Mary Roach, "the funniest science writer in the country" (Burkhard Bilger of The New Yorker), devoted the past two years to stepping behind those doors. Can a person think herself to orgasm? Can a dead man get an erection? Is vaginal orgasm a myth? Why doesn't Viagra help women—or, for that matter, pandas? In Bonk, Roach shows us how and why sexual arousal and orgasm, two of the most complex, delightful, and amazing scientific phenomena on earth, can be so hard to achieve and what science is doing to slowly make the bedroom a more satisfying place. 16 illustrations.
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Consumer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Didn't learn this in biology class!
Comment: Sex has always had its humorous aspects for me, and I'm very happy to learn that Mary Roach has the same feeling. This book really covers many facets of sex and sexuality, but it does it with as funny twist, which takes it out of the realm of the pornographic and puts it into perspective as a scientific study (even though some of the "science" is a bit suspect). The casual reader will probably learn a lot of things about sex that he or she didn't know, and that he or she could have lived a long and happy life without knowing. That being said however, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this treatise, and learning more than I really wanted about sex. Possibly 16 years of Catholic eduation has blunted my mind to some of this, but who knows? Read it and enjoy it for yourself!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bonk
Comment: Another Mary Roach classic: everthing you wanted to know about sex, but did not have a clue to ask!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Prepare to laugh
Comment: I had read "Stiff" and loved it. Not a lot of writers get me laughing out loud, Ms Roach does, consistently. She does find the absurd in human expectations and endeavors, but also enlightens. I did learn I am unable to find any humor in a reference to a six year old boy being killed ("beaned" as the author puts it) by an oxygen tank during an MRI, and wished she'd seriously assaulted the tiger penis and rhino horn use thinking of ancient Chinese medicine, since the practice continues today. But I recognize these as my issues so, like a certain soap, find the author's work 99.99% pure delight. If you seek pure research look toward academia, otherwise you will not be disappointed.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: disappointing and a waste of time
Comment: I rarely write reviews, but felt so utterly annoyed with this book that I had to share my experience with others in the hopes of saving someone else hours of wasted time.
I am in the medical field, so I did not expect to learn anything about the anatomy or physiology of sex. What I did hope to get out of reading this book was some entertainment, and the book failed to deliver on that.
The author seems to insert random anecdotes throughout each chapter. There's not much organization or structure to the book, just random topics thrown together. She seems to hit upon the same topics repeatedly (dildos, masturbation, artificial insemination of livestock etc etc).
I was very disappointed by the book. My friend strongly recommended Bonk and Stiff to me, and I was looking forward to reading both. Even though Stiff has better reviews on Amazon than Bonk does, I don't think I can put myself through another one of March Roach's books, in the small chance that Stiff is even half as bad as Bonk.
This is coming from someone in the medical field. If you have any medical background, the material in this book is pretty boring. The writing style is annoying at best, and not at all entertaining.
However, if you have no medical background, perhaps the information in the book might be interesting, shocking, amusing, or all of the above.
I regret the 10+ hours I wasted on this book. (hard to estimate since I read it over the span of a few months... it was just that painful to read). You might be wondering why I kept reading at all. I tend to never leave anything half finished, even if that "thing" is an awful book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Newly discovered Mary Roach, and glad I did!
Comment: "Bonk" is funny, enlightening, fascinating and, oddly, sexy in a way. Mary Roach makes her topic speak to the reader in way that keeps interest and makes her work very hard to put down. I will be reading more of Ms. Roach.
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