January 4th, 2011 → 4:14 pm @ Seth Mnookin // No Comments
(January 13, 2011: The contest has been extended for another week — see all the details here.)
Sheril Kirshenenbaum’s The Science of Kissing — a great book with arguably the cover/title of the year — was published today. For anyone who has ever made snap judgments based on the books people are reading on the train/subway/bus/plane — well, think of all the possibilities if someone saw you reading this:
In addition to being a great book, The Science of Kissing is also the first book published this year by a ScienceOnline 2011 author. (I believe the second one is coming out in a week. I’ll give you a hint as to what it is: the author’s last name begins with the 13th, 14th, and 15th letters of the alphabet.) You don’t need to take my word for it — you can check out Greg Laden’s ScienceBlogs review, which contains this awesome line:
“The Science of Kissing: What Our Lips Are Telling Us, a new book by Sheril Kirshenbaum has a bunch more about kissing, and is a must read for anyone who wants to try out kissing (you may like it) and keep it scientific.”
In honor of Sheril’s achievement, I’m going to offer a free book by any single one of the SciO11 authors to the person who gives the best one paragraph explanation for why they liked The Science of Kissing. You don’t even need to select The Panic Virus! (A list of authors is here — and there are lots of good ones to choose from.)
Here are the rules: You need to actually buy TSoK — this part works on the honor system. You need to explain why you liked it in the comments. You need to do all of this by next Thursday, January 13th, which is the start of the conference.
Happy reading/smooching!
Post Categories: Books
Tags: ScienceOnline 2011, Sheril Kirshenbaum, The Science of Kissing
Quick Links | A Blog Around The Clock
13 years ago
[…] Get a kiss, win a book […]
Samantha Brooke
13 years ago
Why did I enjoy the SOK?
I have so many memories that are associated with kisses: attending my high-school boyfriend’s French-Canadian family Christmas party, and being mortified when they all kissed cheeks – was I supposed to actually kiss these strangers? My cat, “kissing” my tears when I was sad…and of course, my first kiss, a strange, braces-involved affair. I love kissing! And I loved this book. There was a great variety of content, written in a manner that the average reader could understand. It was interesting to read about the various “kissing-like behaviors” across the world, and I especially enjoyed Ms. Kirshenbaum’s informal surveys of her friends and the experiment she set up. I think the key to this book’s appeal lies in the natural curiosity of its writer; as a scientist, I can relate to wondering about the hows and whys of many things. Ms. Kirshenbaum takes that one step further, encouraging us all to ask questions and find answers. XX indeed.