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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: $14.25
You Save: $10.70 (43%)
New (48) Used (9) Collectible (1) from $14.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 376
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
Condition: Brand New Book - ships next business day!!
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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 40 more reviews...
 were you ever in an MRI with a friend? March 31, 2008
92 out of 98 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!
The Science Of Sex April 1, 2008
32 out of 41 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.
 The morning after... April 11, 2008
20 out of 35 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.
 Best Selling Author of Stiff April 20, 2008
17 out of 39 found this review helpful
When Bonk arrived and I saw that it was by the "best-selling author of STIFF", I got kind of worried. The byline "The Curious Coupling of Science of Science and Sex" had suggested that this was a treatment of, well, science and sex. But one written by the best-selling author of STIFF? I considered the implications and thought about sending back the book.
But I didn't.
As it turns out, Stiff is not about what you might think it is. In fact, it deals with "The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers". Relieved by this finding and thinking therefore that the book I had just purchased was not simply smut, I waded into Bonk.
It begins, "Albert R. Shadle was the world's foremost expert on the sexuality of small woodland creatures".
OK...
From here Roach moves deftly and with much humor through the work of well known investigators such as Kinsey and Masters and Johnson, as well as a host of less well known and sometimes seemingly prurient practitioners such as Robert Latou Dickinson, Giles Brindley, and Dorcus Butt.
Dorcus Butt? Is it possible that there is actually a sex researcher by this name? Apparently so - a fact uncovered by the author's relentless research.
Eventually though, the book bonks (this is also a terminology to describe what happens to an endurance athlete expending too much energy and hitting the wall). Ultimately the exploration of material more and more bizarre and over the top just becomes too much.
For instance, the author travels to Taiwan to observe a penile implant operation.
When complete, and clearly in the interest of science, Roach asks Dr. Hsu (the surgeon) "May I squeeze it?" He answers, "Mary, you have traveled a long way. You can do whatever you want".
I guess this should have been expected given that it's written by the "best selling author of STIFF".
The funniest science book I've ever read April 10, 2008
16 out of 23 found this review helpful
Here's to Ed! Author Mary Roach's husband Ed must be the world's most agreeable husband, seeing as he agreed to have sex with his wife in a 20-inch-diameter MRI tube. While she takes notes. And an observing doctor makes chit-chat.
I actually laughed out loud while reading this book. Often. At the rec center where I work out, I kept getting the giggles while pedaling on the stationary bike. I took off the book jacket with the giant word "Bonk" on the cover (and the tiny, um, "bonking" ladybugs) so it wouldn't be obvious what I was reading.
I learned a great deal. For example, did you know that Victorian gynecologists treated women without looking at them? Or that using most homemade sex machines of that era was "like dating a corn dog"? Or some people thought that witches collected penises and put them in boxes, where they moved around on their own and ate oats and corn?
Mostly I learned that I need to get Mary Roach's other books. She's a gem.
Here's the chapter list:
1. The Sausage, the Porcupine, and the Agreeable Mrs. G: Highlights from the pioneers of human sexual response
2. Dating the Penis-Camera: Can a woman find happiness with a machine?
3. The Princess and Her Pea: The woman who moved her clitoris, and other ruminations on intercourse orgasms
4. The Upsuck Chronicles: Does orgasm boost fertility, and what do pigs know about it?
5. What's Going On in There?: The diverting world of coital imaging
6. The Taiwanese Fix and the Penile Pricking Ring: Creative approaches to impotence
7. The Testicle Pushers: If two are good, would three be better?
8. Re-Member Me: Transplants, implants and other penises of last resort
9. The Lady's Boner: Is the clitoris a tiny penis?
10. The Prescription-Strength Vibrator: Masturbating for health
11. The Immaculate Orgasm: Who needs genitals?
12. Mind Over Vagina: Women are complicated
13. What Would Allah Say?: The strange, brave career of Ahmed Shafik
14. Monkey Do: The secret sway of hormones
15. "Persons Studied in Pairs:" The lab that uncovered great sex
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