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Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex | 
 enlarge | Author: Mary Roach
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $10.94
You Save: $14.01 (56%)
New (48) Used (16) Collectible (1) from $10.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  60 reviews
Sales Rank: 2989
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0393064646
Dewey Decimal Number: 612.6
EAN: 9780393064643
ASIN: 0393064646
Publication Date: April 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: New book w/perfect interior; exterior has slight wear
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Product Description
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 55 more reviews...
 Sure, the author is funny, but this is not for the squeemish September 1, 2008
Okay, I am as interested in sex as the next person and reading about the science of sex from a humorous perspective sounded intriguing. The book started off well, with witty accounts of research by noted sex scientists Kinsey and Masters & Johnson. However, the book deviated from human sexuality with huge sections on animal sexuality, of which I didn't have an interest in.
I'm far from prude but there is a graphic nature to this that readers need to be aware of. Are you ready to read about animals having sex, or to find out what percentage of farm boys try mating with these animals? The graphic nature extends beyond the barnyard with tales of clitorectomies, including a woman who had her clitoris moved. Then there's various forays into the objects people have attempted to insert into their urethras as well as the woman whose hymen was so tough that she ended up using her urethra as a vagina instead. If these tales don't disturb you, then by all means this book may be for you.
Interesting, humorous, and well-written August 30, 2008
Ms. Roach provides an entertaining look at the science of sex. It appears to be quite complete and up-to-date. As it is science though, portions of the book are not 110% engaging. All and all it was well worth a read.
 won't improve your sex life...or perhaps it will August 26, 2008
You think you know that much about sex is weird and you've heard it all before until you read this book. You learn some, the footnotes, too, are educational. The author is ever-present; this is written much from a personal perspective. That's, of course, intentional and refreshing up to a point. One more flaw: she talks about many gadgets, diagrams or pictures would've been helpful.
Rats in pants? August 23, 2008
Bonk the Curious Coupling of Science and Sex is a thorough history of the study of sexual behaviors and activity. Mary Roach, who previously written about cadavers and scientific studies of a possible afterlife, tackles the subject without a blush. She even managed to talk her husband into participating in study in which couples are imaged as they have intercourse. Bonk embraces the practical such as sex studies for spinal cord injury patients allowing them to remain sexual(many who get little or no information from their physicians) as well as the absurd, the study of polyester's effect on sexual activity (using rats wearing polyester pants). Throughout it all, Roach treats her subject with aplomb.
Lots of ick, but where's the fun? August 20, 2008
A book by Mary Roach on sex, of all topics, ought to be wince-inducing and hilarious. The winces are there all right, with tales of penile surgery, farmers stimulating their animals for better yields, and various devices to measure and explore human sexuality. But whether from embarrassment or fatigue, the laughs just aren't there. Maybe it's the sheer ick factor of disinterested scientists playing mad doctor on unsuspecting indigent patients, or the utter weirdness of the Kinsey group "experimenting" on themselves and holding ejaculation contests. Or of the scary futuristic glare of the "Dr. Evil" of sex research -- William Masters (of Masters and Johnson fame). Perhaps it's just the groan factor of page after page of doctors probing, palpating, peering at and pontificating on the most sensitive areas of the body. Whatever it is, the book has nothing of the wacky morbid enjoyment of "Stiff," Roach's first book.
There's plenty to learn about human and animal sexuality. There's lots of info about the mistaken notion s that we humans have had over the years about "what goes where" and why. The ancients thought male and female contributed "seed" tom start human life -- an egalitarian concept not so far from the truth. But Leonardo, for all his enthusiasm for drawing accurate renditions of the human body from cadavers, turned away prudishly when it came to rendering the human reproductive system, preferring to use the erroneous work of others as his source. Then there's the reason, evidently molded by eons of rather messy competition between randy guys, that the male human organ is shaped the way it is.
The goodly amount of new and unusual info in "Bonk" needs to be made palatable by a certain amount of raucous, anarchic fun, but it's here that Roach is unable to deliver. A good read, even if you have to force your way through it.
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