Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex | 
 enlarge | Author: Mary Roach
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $13.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 104
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 14 more reviews...
 "BONK" by Mary Roach: probably the most comprehensive sex study ever written. May 11, 2008
Let me commend for your consideration Ms. Mary Roach's new book Bonk, ISBN 978-0-393-06464-3.
Ms. Roach has written a column for Reader's Digest for several years. In the most recent issue of National Geographic an article by her examines primate behavior, publishing proof of certain hunting activities by open plain chimpanzees that anthropologists have been as reluctant to recognize as the early popes were the solarcentricity of the planets. She is an attractive, intelligent and engaging author who writes with panache and the serene confidence of one who has mastered not only the skill of writing but of thinking.
This book of hers, BONK, is probably the richest concentration of crucial information on the subject of sex that has ever been produced. The Kinsey Report purported to give statistics of various behaviors of the sexes, but did not venture far beyond that topic. The works of Masters and Johnson ranged widely over the topic and brought to light many previously unknown facts, concepts and ideas, usually of a scientific nature devoid of emotion. Bonk, however, covers the totality of human sexual culture as it exists currently, and even explores various animal venues (Bear with me, please! [No pun intended]). This book gives a detailed satellite image of the entire planet of sex, including the often recondite backgrounds of topics as well-known as the breakthroughs of Van Andel, Schultz, Mooyaart, Sabelis and Jupp [LNNG], whose works earned them the Millenium Ig Nobel Prize in medicine; the previously mentioned Kinsey, Masters and Johnson; and an exhaustive list of other researchers.
Terms not familiar to the ordinary intelligent reader are carefully but succinctly explained. The tone is hilariously informal (or informally hilarious), but such a vehicle carries a cargo of the finest gold. It is the most valuable work on the subject I have ever seen.
If you have not read the book, please obtain it and read at least the first five pages. It cannot help but enhance the knowledge, insight and wisdom of any human soul who reads it, and bodes well to make the battleground between male and female a less user-hostile area.
By way of disclaimer, I am not related to Ms. Roach nor to any company with any interest of any sort in the success of this book. I have never met her, and am at most simply an admiring reader of her wide ranging interests and works. But even without this disclaimer, the book speaks for itself. Read the first five pages and then just try to put it down. I'll bet that when you're done you'll agree with me in my assessment.
Science, Sex, and an Entertaining Author! May 10, 2008
Once upon a time, Dr. Isaac Asimov attempted to explain the world to everybody. When I was growing up, I devoured both his science fiction and his non-fiction, learning a lot about what had already happened in the world, what was happening at the present, and what yet might happen. I enjoyed his non-fiction books and thought he was really good at explaining science to the layman.
But these days my heart belongs to Mary Roach! I will never stray. She's only written three books, but she's already captured every inquisitive bone and impulse in my body. She's written articles for READER'S DIGEST and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and her curiosity and propensity for knowledge and instruction seem inexhaustible.
STIFF: THE CURIOUS LIVES OF HUMAN CADAVERS revealed what happened to a body after death. Granted, some stuff maybe I wasn't too thrilled about learning - at first - but Roach took out (most) of the gross effect and totally turned the exercise into an instructional laughfest filled with history and fantastic errata. And the fascination of the subject, as well as her own passion for it, removed the stomach-churn of the experience
In SPOOK: SCIENCE TACKLES THE AFTERLIFE, Roach brought the same kind of intelligent, informative wit to the study of the afterlife and the existence of souls. I knew people were interested in proving the existence of such one way or the other, but I'd never before known to what lengths scientists (and armchair enthusiasts) had gone.
Now Roach delivers, BONK: THE CURIOUS COUPLING OF SCIENCE AND SEX, a hardcore - sorry, couldn't resist - look at the mysteries and mismanagement of sex. When I first saw the plain white, almost virginal book cover, I was entranced. Could a book on that subject really be called by that title? I couldn't help thinking how risque everyone involved was being.
But I couldn't expect anything less of Mary Roach. All (or at least more than I'd ever before guessed at) of the secrets of sex are revealed between the covers, so to speak. She details several of the curious minds that probed into the subject, and the test patients that laid themselves bare. (See? Even I can't approach this subject with a straight face and the occasional ill-conceived giggle and pun.)
I also love history, and Mary Roach makes the most of the study of sex within those parameters as well. She left no rock unturned in her pursuit of this forbidden knowledge that civilization had invented. I knew that the scientists covered regularly in elementary and junior high science classes dug into the field of sex, but I'd never before known exactly to what degree. Nor did I know that some of them might even have murdered patients to gain knowledge. (I mean, how likely is it that a scientist would happen upon the body of a woman who'd died in the throes of orgasm so he could examine her corpse to better understand that function?)
Another thing I love about Mary Roach is that she's apparently willing to go anywhere to seek out knowledge and report back to the armchair scientists who can't afford to go and wouldn't be caught dead asking such questions. (And that's one of the reasons I like Mike Rowe on DIRTY JOBS.)
For this book, Mary Roach interviewed dozens of people, examined dozens of secret documents, took a tour of a pig farm and watched sows get artificially inseminated, first hand (by hand!), and even enticed her own husband into having sex while being subjected to an MRI. I have to admit, that after seeing Roach in action - forgive me - I can't help but believe that has to be one of the most interesting marriages in the world. I love my wife, but I'm not crawling up onto an MRI table to be watched by scientists for anybody.
Roach goes on to explore several other reconstructive surgery avenues physicians and surgeons have pursued over the year. Just when you think she can't top the last chapter, all you have to do is turn the page.
If you haven't discovered Mary Roach, if you think reading Masters and Johnson's HUMAN SEXUAL RESPONSE has made you an expert in the field, pick up BONK and become truly educated and amazed. Her chapter on Master and Johns, and their peers, casts that research in a totally different light and I found myself alternately appalled and amused.
The science field has a new champion ready to educate and entertain the masses, and her name is Mary Roach. I can't wait to see where she's going next.
 Not as funny as promised, leaves a lot to be desired May 10, 2008
1 out of 2 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.
interesting and oh my goodness funny May 5, 2008
Well, the Queen is a scientist by training and therefore a student of finer points of the exchange of genetic matter. In addition, the Queen has been studying chromosomal exchange for many, many years now and has successfully created an F1 generation of her own. In the 1970s genetic exchange was a much more casual matter and the various and sundry methods of exchange were a matter of her intense interest. However, the Queen LEARNED A LOT from Ms Roach's excellent, ribald and informative book. Pigs. Who knew? In addition to being a worthy and descriptive text, the study of the scientific endeavors of Masters and Johnson and the ilk is fascinating in and of itself. You have to admire the intense curiosity of these folks and the ingenuity of their various "methods". I also found satisfying (if you will) the final chapter where the key to transformative genetic exchange encounters was revealed. I will not spoil it for you but suffice it to say that I found it to ring true. I recommend this book with some reservations as the prurient will not find Ms Roach's sense of humor palatable.
 Who says science is dry? May 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Mary Roach, author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, turns her eye and wit to the history of sex research. She examines the history, controversy, and amusing anecdotes that surround the study of sex, excitement, orgasm, and desire. Unlike studies using cadavers, studies of human sexuality have been around for less than a century (with a couple of rather amusing exceptions). Like cadaver studies, there are regulations, taboos, and difficulties connected to the field. One of the most glaring problems is finding volunteers!
Overall, this is an excellently researched book. Roach reviewed and researched studies in the field, examined current studies, and even volunteered for some studies that didn't allow visitors. Reading the works cited page is one of the funniest things I've done in a long time, and that was after reading about how she had to convince her husband to have sex with her in an MRI so she could get information about an ongoing study.
The topics include examining how arousal differs from men and women (the section considering the differences between how each views porn was fascinating), showing how the exact function and actions of all the fun parts actually work (this history of this is amazing), and describing the equipment used to figure out all this information. The book is informative and a useful read for anyone interested in the field, anyone looking to understand (scientifically) how to improve their sex lives, and anyone who is interested in the history of medical research. Her style parallels her style in Stiff. However, there she used a great deal of gallows humor. In this book, she uses a great deal of raunch humor, which gets a tad bit old after a few chapters. She also greatly overuses footnotes, which distracts from reading (and the reason this book didn't get ranked a 5 star).
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