Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini by Mark Leyner, Billy Goldberg Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini
Book Review: a bit of interesting information amidst lots of corny jokes and dry interludes
Summary: 2 Stars
In answer to a question about hemorrhoids, the authors write, "We have no pretensions about this book, and we expect it to be found in that precious spot right next to the toilet." And that's right where it sat as I worked my way through it over several months (note: don't borrow my copy). In this volume, Leyner and Goldberg answer hundreds of medical questions you may have wanted to ask a doctor but have never had the chance, from "Why does poo float?" to "Does breast milk cure warts?" The questions fall in nine sections, including food-related questions (Why do you cry when you cut onions?), bathroom questions (Why can you ignite a fart?), sex questions (What causes shrinkage?), movie and tv questions (Is the show ER accurate?), and more.
This book provides a fair amount of interesting information, and it's an easy read. However, it has some drawbacks. First, between each chapter is a brief narrative about a wild party that Leyner and Goldberg are attending: this portions are boring and irrelevant. Here and there, the authors also insert an IM exchange to indicate some of their collaborative process, with insightful lines like "Did you wipe standing up?": again, boring and irrelevant. Second, many of the answers have no source information: you just have to trust the doctor. Occasionally, the authors make a vague reference a medical journal. (There are ways to give more information without making the book more technical for most readers: one is called endnotes.) One genuinely funny passage of this book is the dedicatory page at the beginning: classic!
I don't lament the time that I spent on the throne perusing this tome, but I wouldn't have read it anywhere else.
Book Review: Good to pass time
Summary: 3 Stars
I got this as a gift, and I like it- BUT I would rather get an Uncle John's Bathroom reader. It has more interesting, off the beaten path info. More humor and more intertaining. A lot of this is just common sense...but they put it in a humorous way.Book Review: Some off-color humor amid some semi-serious Q and A
Summary: 3 Stars
I knew why men have nipples before I read this book. Because we're all female for the first six weeks after conception until the male hormones kick in. Yes, macho men, the default human is female. But I can never resist the kind of book in which there are questions we'd like the answers to and answers.
Ah, but this book is a little different. First, some of the questions are given equivocal answers, which is to be expected, since most of what there is to know isn't known. Some of the questions, like "Will using a cell phone give you a brain tumor?" or "Is it true that left-handed people are smarter than right-handed people?" aren't answered at all. Leyner, who is a writer, and Goldberg, who is an MD, have a way of going around the question. I got the feeling that the extent of their research didn't go much past the Internet--which might raise the question, how did this book ever become a best seller and inspire a sequel? The answer, my friend, is in the comedy.
Leyner and Goldberg are a comedy team. While the bulk of the book is in the Qs and As, a good part consists of some hijinks at a cocktail party (thus the three martinis, although Leyner is mostly into Don Julio tequila). A third part seems to be lifted verbatim from their emails to each other.
Part of the fun are those emails because they seem to give the reader a realistic glimpse into the cooperative creative process. It is also kind of fun to read what a doctor writes when he lets his hair down, so to speak, or at least takes off the white coat. However all of this is carefully staged. This is one of those "best seller" ideas that actually worked. These guys trade raunchy humor spiked with some information and lo and behold it works.
Well, it semi-works. I liked the book and read it through in a setting, but some of the humor may be a little too raunchy for some.
Bottom line: diverting enough for a rainy day or for that cross country flight, or if you need a break from War and Peace.
Book Review: Self-indulgent waste of money
Summary: 1 Stars
I have never been that interested in other people's emails and IMs. Why, then, would I care what these writers email and IM to each other? It seems to provide nothing but filler for what would otherwise be a short, slightly funny, magazine article. The fact that Layner is a published author already is even more appalling. He should know better. The medical items are further buried in a (hopefully) fictional story of a party the authors attend. The details of that are too lengthy and both boorish and unneccessary. When I compare this book to truly well-written and informative tomes such as Freakonomics, I wonder (a) how this made the NYT best-seller list, (b) got such great reviews, and (c) how to get my money back.Book Review: Bathroom Humor. Next Time Print Your Material In The Stall With A Marker.
Summary: 2 Stars
It's not a bad book if you enjoy middle school bathroom humor....about half the book is sexual humor. And for about 25% of the questions they dont know the answer.
Takes about an hour to read.