Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
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.

Customer Reviews: Read 64 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

were you ever in an MRI with a friend? March 31, 2008
128 out of 130 found this review helpful

This a truly great tale of a first-hand look at science and sex from both the inside and the outside! Mary Roach provides a humorous and often very personal view--both as a participant and observer--of humans, animals, and mechanical devices: there is much that you would never have imagined, and perhaps would rather never of heard of at all. She and her husband Ed have sex in a 20-inch diameter MRI tube in the interests of science. The doctor looks on, makes suggestions, and finally tells Ed "You may ejaculate now". The author also recounts the experiments by Kinsey is his attic many years ago and tries to track down the film footage.

The author's great sense of humor needs to be read to be believed. She spares no one, and particularly not herself or her husband. She travels to Taiwan to watch an implant operation. In one of the funniest parts[and this says a lot, since the book will have you howling a lot] she goes to Denmark to watch artificial insemination of sows. We know this happens with cows, and you might suppose that there's not much difference with pigs, but you'd be wrong, very wrong indeed. Suffice it to say that the best results occur, when, among other things best not mentioned here, the AI person lies down on the sow's back and fondles her teats during the process. You may never regard your morning sausage quite the same way again.

The author has a lot of asides that are a delight to read. If you usually skip the footnotes in a book, you'll miss a lot here. You'll learn a lot--for all the things that might seem frivolous, but which are not, the book is a scientific one. Roach has a curiosity, an appetite for knowledge, and has the capability that perhaps most scientists do not have, which is to mix science and humor. Stephen Gould was able to do this, but his humor was not as pervasive--his writing is, at a guess, 95% science at 5% humor, whereas with Roach it's more like 50-50. Martin Gardner's great Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science may be the closest similar work to Roach's book. This book is certainly not for everyone, and there are those who will be deeply offended, but for most it should be a real treat to read!

5 out of 5 stars

The Science Of Sex April 1, 2008
42 out of 47 found this review helpful

Ms Roach has written a hiliarious account of science in search of better sex. A lot of her discoveries fall into the category of "It seemed like a good idea at the time." The author of previous off the wall subjects like "Spook" (post-death exploration) and "Stiff" (dead bodies), she has the knack of finding obscure information that no one has ever heard of. While the book is verbally graphic, it is not porn. She injects herself into her story and her humor resembles the writer, P.J. O'Rourke.

2 out of 5 stars

The morning after... April 11, 2008
20 out of 30 found this review helpful

I enjoyed reading Mary Roach's earlier book, "Stiff", which was an entertaining and informative romp through the history of scientists' uses of cadavers. Granted, it was informative in the way that trivia questions are - fun to discuss over cocktails, but not really helpful to know. Still, it is interesting to pause and think about aspects of life - or death - that usually are beyond our concern. So, I was intrigued by "Bonk"; I expected Mary Roach would easily rise to the challenge.

She never quite got it up. Sure, it was informative. But after reading about one too many sex experiments involving primates, the thrill was gone. Since the subject became dull rather quickly, Roach filled the text with too many jokes - and some of them fell flat. (Some of them were downright nasty, such as the footnote in chapter 9 about a young boy being killed in an MRI machine. What could possibly be funny about that?) After a while, the forced humor and repetition of sex talk reminded me of 5th grade locker room conversation.

She also tried to make the story interesting by giving the reader portraits of the scientists involved in the research. The caricatures were either too silly or too scary; for the latter, she had to repeatedly make an effort to defend them as real scientists, not voyeurs. Adding these characters to the locker room talk and lame humor hardly made for an entertaining read.

You can only try to be funny about body parts for so long, before the reader just starts wishing Roach would hurry up and finish. The stories that could have been interesting, such as when she relates her own involvement in some of the more tame experiments, are about as titillating as a cold shower. Worse than that, the book doesn't seem to go anywhere. The reader is up to the eyeballs in scientists and genitals, but there seems to be no point to the story, except to say that there have been some scientists that have been interested in genitals. Well, isn't that a thrilling thesis?

In the end, I was reminded of something that Raymond Chandler wrote, comparing alcohol to love: "The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off." In "Bonk", the preface - entitled 'foreplay', of course - draws you in. You'll read a chapter or two, but then you'll wish you'd said, "Not tonight, dear; I have a headache." It's just routine - and if the author isn't going to try to make it interesting and new, then the reader might as well just roll over and get some sleep. At least you'll still respect yourself in the morning.

3 out of 5 stars

Not as funny as promised, leaves a lot to be desired May 10, 2008
20 out of 48 found this review helpful

"Bonk" was supposed to be riotously funny, a real laugh-a-minute book about sexuality and sex. Well, it's not nearly as funny as I'd hoped. In fact, I only laughed once or twice. Mostly, the attempts at humor are mild and fall just a little short in timing or set-up. Roach has a decent touch for writing funny material, but not a great touch.

So, the delivery ain't great. Then there's the material. Most of this stuff is from Re-tread City. Masters & Johnson? Please. The MRI study? Old news. If Roach wanted an uproarious romp through sex research, there's a lot more funny stuff out there.

It's an OK book, but I think it's overhyped. It's pretty average.

5 out of 5 stars

The Things We Do For "Love" April 5, 2008
17 out of 18 found this review helpful

Author Mary Roach set out to find and write about sex research around the world (and about the yeilds of that research) and wound up following a lot of very strange paths. From a urologists office in Taipei to a sow furrowing operation in Denmark to a "toy" manufacturer in Chatsworth California, the author tracked down all leads that were presented to her and followed up to learn all there was about how the human anatomy works and why research on this subject is usually cloaked in euphemisms. At times she delves back into the 1800s to explain how we are where we are today and why.

To say the book is funny is an understatement. The author has a gift for puns and uses it to maximum potential, taking material that could be somewhat dry and turning it into page turning reading. If you are interested in the science of sex and love to laugh, this is a wonderful book that will not fail to deliver.

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