Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

Hands down this is one of the best books I have read in some time. I found myself laughing out loud with almost every page while staying riveted to the fascinating account of the study of sex throughout the last few hundred years.

The book gets more interesting as you read. It's full with interesting facts. The only thing that is distracting are the footnotes.

This book is full of interesting tidbits of information and the author can be funny at times.
My favorite chapters list of this book:

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
5. What's Going On in There?: The diverting world of coital imaging
7. The Testicle Pushers: If two are good, would three be better?
8. Re-Member Me: Transplants, implants and other penises of last resort
14. Monkey Do: The secret sway of hormones
15. "Persons Studied in Pairs:" The lab that uncovered great sex
Another book you will love is Sex and the Perfect Lover: Tao, Tantra, and the Kama Sutra

Since I cannot help out with packing and there are only so many hours a day I can find the TV or internet interesting, I went bookshopping again. This time I bought, among other things, "Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex."
The jacket loudly proclaimed, "In Bonk, Roach shows us how and why sexual arousal and orgasm-two of the most complex, delightful, and amazing scienctific phenomena on earth- can be so hard to achieve and what science is doing to slowly make the bedroom a mores satisfying place."
Sounds intriguing right? Plus all the reviews on Amazon were 5 stars. It must be good, right?
Well, no. I don't think so.
Don't get me wrong, the subject matter is interesting. I am amazed by secual reproduction of all types of life, including jellyfish, but that is a tale for a different day. The problem is that I guess I just don't cotton to juvenile sex humor. Maybe it's because I am old (late 20s). Maybe it is because I am a scientist or really open about my sexuality and thus do not feel uncomfortable thinking or reading about, OMG! Sex! I don't know, but I found this woman's humor to be a distraction at best and outright retarded at worst. I wonder whether I could make it through coffee talk with her and here's why:
In one passage she is talking about meeting with a researcher who studies the sexual activity of rheus monkeys, where come on cues are referred to as presentations. The note for this tidbit within the continuing story is as follows: "A visit to Yerkes [the research facility] will forever after distort your image of Corporate America. On my flight home, the woman behind me was talking about a presentation she was planning for a man named Mark. Her seatmate had just finished up a series of displays at the regional sales conference." [Pg. 284, emphasis the author's]

Or when speaking about the G-spot, she mentions that "Zwi Hosh, of the Center for Sexual Therapy at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, published a paper in which he trained 64 percent of a group of 56 noncoitally orgasmic women [those who do not orgasm simply from intercourse] to have orgasms by stimulating the front wall of their vagina. While most were using the finger, some had managed ot with 'anteriorly directed intercourse.'" The note on this one:
"No one in Israel titters over the seeming irony of a sex therapy center in a hospital called Rambam. Rambam is short for the Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (a.k.a. Maimonides). Though I now associate him with rear-entry intercourse, the rambam, as he is known there, was an important medieval Jewish philospoher." [pg. 80]
Sadly, this book just didn't deliver. Yes, sexual research is interesting, provided it is presented properly. This feel more like an aside into the author's personal absorption and juvenality, especially once you get to the points in the book when she begins (more than once) to volunteer to be a research subject. If she gets off on that, great. If it helped her understand her subject matter, great, but I don't necessarily want to hear about her personal experiences having sex while being ultrasounded. Do you know why researchers randomize the identities of the people they research? It's not for the subject's privacy, but because the last thing most people want to think about is what two other people look like during a sexual experience, especially when it's not porn.
I don't know. I forced my way through this book, but it was a total waste of energy. If you want an enjoyable read, pick up: "Sex: A Natural History." It is at once more intelligent, tells a better story, and is actually funnier in a very adult way. For ridiculousness associated by a woman who clearly hasn't made it past 4th grade humor, read Bonk.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach: We are now eight years into the twenty-first century and the world has made many great strides in areas like medicine, anthropology, sociology, politics, and increasing our knowledge and respect for our planet and the many different peoples who live on it. And yet the United States is still a country that views sex as an act to be hidden behind closed doors, performed infrequently (preferably for the purpose of reproduction), and as quick and easily dispensed with.

In the May issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, 'a survey of sex therapists concluded the optimal amount of time for sexual intercourse was 3 to 13 minutes'. Now Mary Roach, author of the bestselling Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, has turned her scientific mind to an act that can only be performed in specific ways according to laws in certain U.S. states.

The empirical study of sexual intercourse has certainly come a long way since humanity began having problems with performing the act, and Roach does a fantastic job of showing just how much work and research has been performed in the name of science on the subject of sex. While the author does go back to the days of ancient Greece, Bonk is not arranged chronologically, but rather by subjects ranging from human sexual response; to how the shape, size and placement of the sexual organs can vary from person to person and how this affects people having sex; to sex toys and devices; to what exactly is going on biologically during an orgasm.

Roach continues as she did with Stiff to turn off readers as she goes into detail on what takes place during penis surgery, having seen it performed before her very eyes; as well as revealing the scientific fact that because an orgasm is essentially a reflexive response to specific stimuli over time, a dead body would be able to have one. Roach makes a giant leap for humankind into the world of sexual study in volunteering herself and her husband to be studied scientifically while performing intercourse.

Just as in the author's other books, Bonk is an eye-opener for readers, no matter their background; after absorbing it cover to cover one feels educated enough to make diagnoses for those experiencing sexual dysfunction. But then this may be one of the reasons Roach wrote this book: for those too ashamed to seek clinical help. She makes her point clear: that sex isn't something to be hidden especially when problems affect people's everyday lives. There's a group to help everyone - even a special one for the disabled who are unable to have sex in ordinary ways - and offer advice and help in maintaining a healthy sexual relationship.

After finishing Bonk, one can see how this subject has been taboo for so long, and this continues to be the case with the current U.S. administration being a major advocate of abstinence over contraceptives. But at the same time it is clear that many people over the years have devoted their lives to the scientific study of sex, and here we see a different world of those who want to help and educate others. Ultimately, whatever goes on between consenting human beings behind closed doors is their business, but is there any reason why it shouldn't be enjoyable?

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