Why Do Men Have Nipples?, a book of medical Q&A's, has the potential to both delight and mortify.
This book contains many odd and interesting questions. Some questions are ones I'd always wondered about - old wives tales and such - and some are ones I had never considered.
This book paints a humorous portrait of the two personalities behind the book: witty Dr. Goldberg and obnoxiously funny Mark Leyner. The duo seem to have a penchant for bathroom humor, which can get a little stale during the whole chapter devoted to waste-related questions. Still, the book moves quickly, never lingering on a particular question for too long, sometimes offering too brief answers.
Jokes and anecdotes keep the book-cum-trivia collection - light and funny. The answers are explained simply and humorously, and they aren't too verbose or complicated. Great for anyone looking for a good laugh and a little more knowledge- just keep in mind that it's not chock-full of serious answers.

Very, very little actual medical information. The research is lacking and questions are answered very briefly. The answers provided are not reasonable answers to questions they wrote themselves. It seems like a book that was churned out in a weekend. This book could have been much more but it ended up just being an entire book of filler.
Even though it's ridiculously short, the authors added more inane filler between answering questions. The actual interesting content of this book is easily less than a third of its total (puny) volume. Don't waste your time.

I would recommend a book in the same genre that is way, way more interesting and informative: The Hypochondriac's Guide to Life. And Death.

I had high hopes for this book--it promised to answer some nifty little trivia questions we might think of at odd moments, such as the title question. It does have some good answers to some good questions, and is accessibly written.

That said, it has disappointing answers to some questions too, such as what happens when you hold in intestinal gas. Rather than explaining that it's reabsorbed into the lower intestine and then... (or whatever does happen to the gas), they say it just goes away. So I still don't know what happens to it.

Even more disappointing is that the content-to-filler ratio is surprisingly low. The questions are interspersed with long descriptions of the authors at social get-togethers, with little explanation of its relevance to the book, and transcripts of IM sessions between the authors, chatting about the book they're writing, which don't add any useful content.

The book could have probably been improved by removing half of it and focusing better on the weak answers.

You know...I got this book because I saw more than a few rave reviews of it on the 50 Book Challenge community...and boy am I glad that I got this from the library and didn't pay for it or use up a book credit on PBS. For the most part, I knew the answers to the questions already. For the ones I would have been interested in knowing more about, the answers were of the "no one really knows" variety and the remaining few were just not really answered, the question was avoided totally with some humor and they moved on quite quickly.

It has a few laugh out loud moments, but mostly it wasn't at all what the title promises it to be. The questions and answers, while humorously asked and answered are not REALLY answered in most cases or the answers are extremely vague to the point of being inane and useless. It wasn't an awful read...but if it had taken more than a couple of hours to read this, I'd be pissed...it's shallow, vague and utterly obvious that the editor/publisher did a pretty slick job with the title and cover, because those are about the most enticing things about Why do Men Have Nipples? I wouldn't recommend it, except maybe as a quick, slightly amusing read...it's not REALLY going to answer any of those questions that you've got wandering around in the back of your head...and the one's it does, you probably already know the answer to or there is no answer. This book is annoying in the way that those Discover Channel specials that claim to tell you the secret of the Bog People or some other such unknowable thing...when all they are really doing is presenting all the evidence and then telling you no on REALLY knows...I hate that. The title of the book (like the title of these types of programs) promise one thing, but deliver something significantly different...interesting and informative (or entertaining...and sometimes all three), but not really delivering what was promised. C-

Fluffily entertaining. Best to read waiting in line to buy a book with more meat on it.

I had high expectations for this book. They weren't met. The two authors had a great ideas but thye couldn't pull it together. It was average. They pick some question which frankly a whole bunch of us have often wondered but simply from embarrassment could never quite muster the guts to ask. But in most of the answers that they provide, they weren't filling or for the most part funny. ANd author (the tv writer/producer) is funny.

The book had a few moments where their sens of humor peeks out and in those places, I would laugh and think is that really their hostess' name and did she kreally look and say those things?

Cheers,

This book is chalked full of interesting answers to many funny questions, if you need a bathroom book or conversation peice for your coffee table, this is the book for you!

This book is interesting and entertaining. It's a good book that you can read for five minutes, let it go, then pick up over and over again. You might even want to put it on your coffee table for friends to check out. It might spark up some conversation.

I like the questions that they ask along with the answers, but then the authors get into these little rhetoric sessions and they chat about things that aren't pertinent to the book at all. I could do without those sections.

I imagine that the idea of writing the book "Why Do Men Have Nipples?" was born at a cocktail party somewhere, when a doctor had been asked many questions about not-so-important matters of the way our bodies function. The book gives answers to countless questions of "why, when, how, etc." that you might have often asked yourself but never bothered (or was too embarrassed) to search for an answer. Yes, the book is informative, but first and most of all it is fun, and it should be treated as such. For further reading I suggest Why Do Men Fall Asleep After Sex?: More Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Whiskey Sour

this is another great book. you gotta check out "why men fall asleep after sex" ... both entertaining and page-turners! a must have!

Got this book for my boyfriend as a gag gift. It is funny for what it is. I don't think the authors ever meant it to be an intense, educational book. Good questions and fun to flip through.

After hearing about this book from one of my favorite authors, I started flipping through this little encyclopedia of uncouth knowledge enthusiastically, probably because I have had a number of these questions stewing around in my head.

The most interesting sections (I think) deal with sex and bodily oddities, like webbed feet and the title question. Who would have thought that all of mankind starts off as womankind? That's a serious power trip right there.

I could have done without the rambling online chats--I skipped through all of that actually and was surprised that it takes up almost a quarter of the book. I don't care about the ways the authors try to paint themselves as clever or funny because it's all in the Q&A section of the book. Aside from that, this is a pretty entertaining piece of nonfiction. It's definitely untraditional and heavy on non-seriousness and will have you look at that spot on your chest differently.

I just listened to this on audiobook and was very disappointed. For some reason (most likely to pad the tiny amount of actual information) they felt the need to couch the whole book in a ridiculous and lame cocktail party scenario. It was obviously intended to be funny but was just pathetic. Many questions had the answer of "gee, even doctors don't know that." Wow, thanks! Also, some were so obvious I don't know why they were included (does anyone really NOT know that poppy seeds cause a positive test for opiates because opium comes from poppies? Really?) If you love entertaining bits of info, read "Freakonomics" instead.

This book is funny, there are some silly questions we may have one time or another wondered about but never asked. Mike Smith seems to think we must be morons if read this book, but in fact the person that reads this book has a sense of humor and light heartedness and sense of wonder. This book is not intended to be an acedemic scholastic educational tool, it's intended for entertainmaint. Geeez Mike, lighten up!

I purchased this for a friend of mine for his birthday. He's a bit of a brain, and I figured this would peak his intrest. Great value.

This book is fun for anyone who doesn't read these much. However, if you are a fan / collector of imponderables, this is one may be a little redundant of many you've read before. Goes on tangents and narratives a lot rather than addressing many questions directly.

This is a very interesting and easy to read format where the reader can find out answers to stuff they've maybe wondered about but never had the courage to ask. Emergency doctor Billy Goldberg and co author Mark Leyner have researched answers to heaps of these questions as well as dispelled many myths and old wives tales ignorantly passed on from generation to generation.

Inside you'll find out why old ladies grow facial hair, does eating chocolate cause acne, why you cry when you cut onions, why there's no point wasting a steak on a black eye, have the excuse by bad parents that their hyperactive kids are misbehaving because of sugar or artificial colour heavy food totally debunked, as well as other the disproving of myths such as carrots help your vision, wet or cold weather causes colds and a heap of others.

The best educational books work because they entertain you as well. Other entertaining and informative books out there are Do Blue Bedsheets Bring Babies?: The Truth Behind Old Wives' Tales, So Gross: Over 100 Gross-Worthy Facts, Great Mythconceptions: The Science Behind the Myths, Hippo Eats Dwarf: A Field Guide to Hoaxes and Other B.S. to name but a few. I have a listmania list of the best of these books going which should be linked to some of these above mentioned books. Check it out if your interested.

I love to read books with interesting facts like this book had. It did have the messenger transcripts between the two guys that kind of take away from the book and I felt were just put there as filler. The tidbits of info they put in this book was interesting, and I read through the book with breeze b/c I couldnt put it down. Id definitely tell others to read it, and have passed my copy around to some of my friends to browse through.

This seemed like a great book at first and had some really funny and insightful facts, but I felt for the most part it could have been better. Some of the explainations I felt were either a little too basic or a little too complicated. The IM breaks were very distracting and annoying, though the little story at the begining of each chapter was very entertaining. Great book to have in your bathroom, but wouldn't recommend it to any book clubs.

i usually have this book displayed on my coffee table in the living room, and when i have visitors, they all want to look through the book. great conversation starter.

This book is a crack up! It now lives in the bathroom, where a book of this humor should live! I did however bring it down to my favorite pub, to share a few laughs!

People that come over to visit our home, somehow take a really long time in the bathroom, and come out smiling!

I enjoyed this informative book. I think the cover is misleading-- a lot of the questions are not ones anybody would be shy about asking. I also found a lot of the IM transcripts boring and skipped them.

This is really an educational book disguised as a bawdy book, which is fine with me!

This book is full of the information to questions you've always wanted answers to.

This a book filled with plenty of trivial information, some none of us had ever wandered about. Indeed, I was curious to learn about the effects of coffee on human growth (there are none by the way), but truthfully, I could have gone without the data on bodily functions and human waste. My advice is, if you are looking for a book to discuss over dinner with your friends and friends, skip this one. Frankly, I wouldn't even bring it up at the bar and if that's the case, then why read it at all when you can just go to the net directly for answers to common questions?

-Simon Cleveland

Great bathroom reading! I only wish it were longer.

This book was hilarious. I have a good friend that I chat with via IM, so I totally understand the humor in the chatting transcripts. This book was very informative and contained alot of questions that I had thought about. Some I had not thought about but love them anyway.!! KUDOS to Leyner & Goldberg for a great book. Follow up book is just as good.

This book is like a comedy movie that only has enough humor to make a preview. You go to the movie thinking it's going to be a riot, but the only funny parts were those in the preview. Why do men have nipples? It's an intriguing question and makes you think you're going to learn all sorts of trivia and interesting facts about human anatomy. WARNING: If you made a C or better in biology there's nothing earth shattering in this book. If you ever took a human anatomy class, you could've written this book. I got the CD to entertain me on a road trip. It was a big fat waste of time and money.

This book is entertaining and medically educational. Because the sections are short, it's great to pick up when you have a few minutes to spare or are in the bathroom. It's also something that can be read repeatedly, because the knowledge gained will inevitably be lost in a few weeks.
Why do men have nipples...? Excuse me, I have some reading to do.

Do you really know why men have nipples? Is it bad to crack your knuckles? What causes shrinkage? This and soooo much more are answered in this book. As Goldberg explains, these are questions that many doctors wind up being asked when people at parties discover that there is a doctor in their midst. The book is divided into sections based on topic and each section is prefaced with a portion of a continuing story of a party attended by both Goldberg and Leyner and how the topics in the subsequent section were precipitated by some occurance at the party. The tone of the book is very conversational and quite a bit of humor is injected in the answers. However, in many instances, I feel that they both could have had even more fun with the answers than they actually did and that they were constrained by an editorial page count. My favorite portions are those in which Leyner talks about a couple of the topics from the point of view of two fictionalized golf announcers. There really is no way for this to make sense without reading it and I highly recommend this book.

When this book came out, I seemed to see reviews and publicity about it everywhere. I picked it up used the other day, and boy, am I glad I only paid 50 cents for it---that means I only wasted 50 cents. It's a book that fails on two levels. It tries to be mainly a humor book, but it's some bizarre form of humor that must only apply to the author's friends. In between chapters, for some reason the book tells of a wild party with a strange cast of characters, only vaguely medically related and completely not funny. There are also many dialogues between the authors which I guess are supposed to be hilarious but certainly are not. I truly felt both parts of the book were extremely odd and close to non-comprehensible. From a medical perspective, the book also fails quite miserably. The answers to questions are brief and silly. I am certainly no medical expert, but I can say I didn't learn a thing from their answers. They leaned heavily in the direction of 4th grade interests---lots of talk about bathroom issues and body gases.

If you are looking for humor, look elsewhere, and if you are looking for interesting medical facts, likewise. There ARE books which combine the two, for example, the Imponderable series by David Feldman, but this is not it. Amazing it ever got published.

Though some questions answered in this book are really informative, overall, its not upto the mark...!! After a couple of pages, I lost complete interest (Due to the way some topics are dealt)....and I had to struggle to finish this one...

In my view, this book is not worth the time & money!

The first chapter is good and sounds like a doctor wrote it, but then it turns to weird "chats" and potty humor. I am sorry I finished this book.

Did I miss something here? I read the whole book (okay, ALMOST the whole book -- I admit I skipped over the nonsensical instant messaging transcipts that seem to make up the bulk of the text, as well as the silly chapter intros) and I wasn't floored. Or even wowed. Or even that impressed.

There's nothing in this book that you can't find out on your own with an Internet hookup and a brain cell or two to rub together. Most of it is rehashed medical journal articles, and the rest is puffery. And a lot of it was ridiculous! Any mom can tell you that YES, sugar makes kids act up -- even if it isn't scientifically "proven." Any teenager can tell you YES, you can pop certain kinds of zits with virtually no ill effects (what was this weirdo story about causing abcesses in your sinus cavities by squeezing your pimples??? I have NEVER in my 38 years heard of such a thing).

The book seemed to be written more for the authors' enjoyment and entertainment than anything else. Parts of it were downright rude, and the rest was either worthless or unbelievable. Sorry to be so harsh, but I really expected more.

I actually bought this as a Christmas gift for my boss. He read portions to us at the office and then shared it around. It is a great read especially if you need a life in your life but you may only have a few minutes to read at a time. Just a funny but true book.

Has a lot of information which is very interesting. After every question provides a description in a way that anyone could understand. It other words, they do not use big words to confuse when it comes to explaining different systems in our bodies. I already bought the other book "Why do men fall asleep after sex?".

I purchased this as a gift for my son-in-law and the first thing that he said was I almost bought this book!

The concept is great. But the book is trying so hard to be funny it forgets to actually answer the questions. Very few questions are actually answered in this thin little book. For example, can you lose a contact lens in your eye? Still have no idea. I believe the answer was "no, it has nowhere to go". Well, that doesn't really help now, does it? Clearly they were trying too hard to be funny that they forgot to actually spend time working on answers to the questions. Don't waste your time.

This is a hilarious book and a great gift for any one in the medical field or who wants to be. It's a wonderful balance of humor and real information and makes for a fun read. I wouldn't recomend it for people under 14 though because there is some somewhat explicit info and words.

This book is exactly what our society does NOT need....a collection of questionable medical information. There were several sections that had me wondering about the veracity of the information. When I got to the sections on MSG and sugar substitutes, I knew there was reason to question the information in this text. Millions of migraine suffers are proof enough that MSG and sugar subs such as Aspartame cause debilitating migraines. I'd question the knowledge of any M.D. who isn't aware of this well documented information. And BTW....only a male M.D. would say size doesn't count....the vast female population would say otherwise and no man can make this determination since his experience is insufficient to judge. Heaven save us from men who don't have a clue.

i got this book for my wife as a joke and she loves it! laugh out loud reading! she recommends it so im reading it next

A fast and funny read - and somewhat educational too. This book really asks the many questions you'd only ask your doctor after the 3rd martini.

Very fun book! You can learn a lot from this book!

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.

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.)

I don't lament the time that I spent on the throne perusing this tome, but I wouldn't have read it anywhere else.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It's a funny, quick read that packs in all of Mark Leyner's quirky sense of humor. The anecdotes themselves are hilarious. You don't read the book to really, really learn something, although you inevitably do along the way. You read the book to have a good laugh and ponder some of the stranger things in life. A great gift -- for yourself, too.

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