Bonk by Mary Roach
Published 2008 · 68,000 words · about 5 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction, Nonfiction, Satire & Humor, Science & Nature
How hard is Bonk to read?
Bonk scores 17 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 28 out of 100
- Medical and anatomical terms handled with humor.
- Sentence structure: 22 out of 100
- Abstraction: 22 out of 100
- Concrete reporting on physical research.
- Information density: 40 out of 100
- Research-packed but entertaining.
- Narrative indirection: 80 out of 100
- Topical chapters. Direct structure.
- Symbolic density: 80 out of 100
- Factual rather than symbolic.
- Ironic distance: 22 out of 100
- Roach's deadpan treatment of awkward subjects.
- Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
- Each chapter provides its answers.
- Structural complexity: 18 out of 100
- Independent topical chapters.
How Bonk is regarded
Bonk holds a literary regard score of 36 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.