Jim's review of Bonk (original) (raw)

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Jim's Reviews > Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

Bonk by Mary Roach

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
by

695116

I didn't think she could write a better book than Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, but I was wrong. "Bonk" is fantastic. I read it because I love Roach's style, especially on tough subjects. I'm over 50, grew up on a farm, had an active sexual life before & after I got married almost 30 years ago & have raised 3 kids to adulthood. I'm a sysadmin & there isn't much I haven't seen on the Internet. So, how much new material could there be?

Plenty, but that wasn't what shocked me. There was very little 'shocking' material. Roach kept the book very much in the realm of science with just enough humor to make it flow & keep it interesting. No, what shocked me was our lack of knowledge in this area.

Sex is one of the most important parts of our lives. I would have thought some one or some study would have all the answers. We've split the atom, but we don't really understand an orgasm. What's up with that? Well, sex is a taboo subject. Even after the 60's? Yup.

I thought we'd come a long way since the Victorian & 50's era repression, but apparently not. President Clinton (the man with the wandering cigar) actually fired his surgeon general for suggesting that teaching masturbation might help with the AIDs epidemic. Government money & review committees make sex studies a very tough sell. It's also very difficult to find people willing to be studied & even harder to take many measurements.

Roach really went all out to write this book. She literally traveled the world (from Danish pig farms to a private Egyptian clinic, all over the U.S. & to the far east) & even participated in some studies. She even talked her husband into helping. ("Dear, how would you like a free trip to London. There's only one little catch...") And then she wrote a fantastically in-depth book about it with just the right touch of humor.

I highly recommend it to everyone. I don't think there is a person on the planet that couldn't learn a lot from this book, even if it is just some of the difficulties the scientific method faces when it runs into our prejudices.

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Reading Progress

December 15, 2008 – Shelved

July 7, 2010 –31.35% "Fantastic. Her humorous touch is filled with interesting facts. As good as "Stiff"."

August 31, 2010 –62.7% "Still fantastic, but I got side tracked with other books. "

September 4, 2010 –Finished Reading

December 11, 2013 – Shelved as:1paper

September 18, 2016 – Shelved as:science

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