Rating: 
Summary: Stimulating topic
Review: I really liked that booked, but then I also bought "The Third Chimpanzee" from Jared and I found that "Why sex is fun" to be just an excerpt of the spicy parts of "The Third Chimpanzee".So, if you want to see the spicy sections only, this is your book, but if you buy "The Third Chimpanzee" you get a fuller picture and all the hot topics as well. Philipp Schaumann Singapore
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but incomplete
Review: I was disappointed that a book titled "Why is Sex Fun?", while considering such interesting questions as why men do not usually lactate and the evolutionary value of menopause (though I'm not convinced by his argument on that one), does not give even a brief mention to the purpose for orgasm.
As clearcut a question as this may seem, the obvious answer, "to make sex fun", needs more investigation. I would be interested to know, for example, do only humans experience orgasm? And what of the disparity between the sexes when it comes (pun unintended!) to the non-neccessity of orgasm to conception?
Despite this, and the fact that I do not neccessarily agree with all of the author's conclusions, the book was an interesting Sunday-morning read.
Rating:
Summary: this book was fun itself, but did not clarify why sex is fun
Review: In why is sex fun? (WSIF) Jared Diamond talks about many things, undoubtedly, but not about why sex is fun. Title is misleading. This book is a minor work of Diamond, able of much better things (I would rate it indeed is as 3.5 stars).
However, minor as it is, WSIF is a completely worthy book, which you can easily read in a short time and casual way; for sure you will be pleased with all the stories and anecdotes that you are to learn from Diamond, as in any other of his books and articles of opinion. (For instance, I found especially interesting to know about the dyak fruit bats, a species in which males are equipped with functional mammary glands, and actually lactate their infants!!) At the end of the book, you will be a little wiser regarding the nature of human being. He is an intelligent and skillful author.
In WSIF Diamond basically develops the ideas already introduced in chapters 3 to 6 of his "The Third Chimpanzee" (TTC), this is, the reproductive behavior of human being from an evolutionary perspective. If you read TTC you will be familiar with women's concealed ovulation and menopause, permanent receptiveness, packed social life and "relative" monogamy of human couples, private and recreational sex, etc. Homo sapiens is just one more animal species, and our behavior, as weird as sometimes can seem, it is clearly explained from animal behavior and evolutionary perspectives.
However, WISF's approach results a bit superficial, and you will not find any comment about important aspects, as the fact that humans have developed that social glue called love, undoubtedly part of our reproductive behavior. Homosexuality and other oddities which apparently don't lead to an increase in reproductive success but are largely spread are not mentioned as well. For the last years, books on human (and other animals) sexuality and reproductive behavior from evolutionary perspectives are abundant, and some of them are far more interesting than this. I recommend you to read WISF, which you are to enjoy, but if you are interested in this topic, you better read also the last chapter of John Alcock's "Triumph of Sociology" and the first part of the superb "The moral animal", by Robert Wright, among others. In those books the difference between proximate and ultimate cause are better explained, and I think that that is the key point to understand nowadays human sexual behavior: matrimony, in its different forms; infidelity; the strong sexual drive in males;male jealously and aggressiveness; the importance of beauty; and many more.
Rating: 
Summary: No!
Review: No animal has sex with the idea of procreation in mind, other than humans. Therefore, Jared's suggestion that humans are the only animals that have sex without the idea of procreation in mind is the greatest idiocy ever expressed in our galaxy!
I could go on, but I trust you got the point.
Rating:
Summary: Less About Fun, More About Evolution. by fermed
Review: Now, REALLY! Do you seriously think that the question posed by the title of this book can be answered? Would you, in any event, want it answered? Do you think sex would be more fun if you knew why it IS fun? Would it be less fun? Does it matter? Worry not. This book does not address the issue of "fun." This is a serious tract having to do with evolutionary biology and sociobiology. It does contain such a given as "Human sex is mostly for fun, not for insemination," but that is about as far as it goes on the "fun" part of the title. Catchy titles are known to sell books, and one that contains both "sex" and "fun" is sure to account for a few (maybe many) sales, even if it does not describe the contents of the book very well. The interesting parts of the book (and there are many) have to do with such surprising facts as: menopause is a nearly exclusively human trait. Other female mammals remain fertile through their their life span, with the exception of pilot whales, who are subject to menopause. This book attempts to explain the evolutionary advantages of menopause in both humans and whales. The fact that human females emit very few outward signs of fertility and are sexually receptive to males throughout their menstrual cycle has huge implications in terms of how the institution of marriage has evolved in society. It is THAT kind of a book: scholarly, philosophically provocative, and extremely interesting. There is no sexual titillation here. You will be told that pubic and underarm hair are "cheap and wholly arbitrary" signals of human sexual maturity, a fact which may or may not hold your interest. In all, this is a short but highly concentrated source of extraordinary information about the evolution of sexuality, about mammalian behavior, and even about the interplay between penis size and the size of the brain. It is fine reading, but forget about "fun." The book is well indexed and contains good references. I withold one star because of the mild deception this book's title imposes upon the unwary consumer.
Rating:
Summary: Why Sex is Sex
Review: There is a minor truth-in-advertising issue regarding Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality, by physiologist Jared Diamond: The title question is never really addressed. The true theme seems to be How Sex Came to be Sex as We Know It. Not that this isn't interesting in its own right, of course. It's just that the original question is worthy of discussion too. Why is Sex Fun? reads like a lecture series rather than a book. Apparently intended to provide the reader with an overview of the latest thinking on the evolutionary aspects of the subject, this short work includes sections on different sexual (and mate) selection strategies employed by males and females (presumably based on unequal "investments" in the methods of getting one's genes into the next generation); lactation (why milk is produced by females, but not, as a rule, males); how and why humans, almost uniquely, came to engage in engage in recreational sex; the unequal domestic roles played by males and females, particularly in child rearing; female menopause (which is, again, nearly unique to humans); and sexual signaling (Diamond considers penis length in human males to be a prime example, but not necessarily a signal directed at females). As fascinating as these subjects are, there is much more that is left out. Any full discussion of human sexuality, especially with the high-order concept of "fun" in its presumed abstract, needs to deal with that odd species' whole gamut of non-procreational expression: homosexuality, old-age love, and sex-as-power, for non-inclusive example. But Why is Sex Fun? treats the very large subject of recreational sex only from the "selfish gene" point of view. Even then, there is at least one major methodological criticism: Most evolutionary biologists and evolutionary psychologists go to great lengths to bring out the importance of "ancestral environment". That is, gene-based behavioral tendencies have evolved over a great deal of time, so it doesn't do a lot of good to consider them only from the standpoint of a modern participant. This problem crops up in Diamond's discussion of male hunting strategies. In a modern hunter-gatherer society, men typically go for the "big kill" (a large mammal, for instance), while women are more content to gather roots and so on. Diamond makes the point that the male strategy makes no sense nutritionally, so the answer must be found in differential sexual strategies. However, the possibility is not mentioned that hunting patterns may have evolved when big game was, in fact, rather more plentiful than it is today. All this is a pity, because we know, from the author's other works (especially the wonderfully told Guns, Germs, and Steel), that he is quite capable of a fully formed presentation. Sex deserves it.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and informative
Review: This is a well-written introduction to human sexual evolution. Those not familiar with the subject will no doubt learn a great deal, while those who do know it can brush up on their knowledge while learning a few new things as well. It should not be read by true experts, as there is little new for them. But for the rest of us its easy to read and a blast! Kudos once again to Diamond.
Rating: 
Summary: A great read.
Review: This is definitely the most entertaining and informative book I've read in a long time, both fiction and non-fiction. Why do some male species have harems and others only one lifetime sexual partner? Why are males more likely than females to have a harem? Why do some species display their sexuality overtly and others covertly? These and many more questions about animal sexuality are answered in very clear and entertaining language. The last chapter on that most discussed of male topics - is there any advantage to having a large phallus - had me rolling on the ground with laughter. Learn and laugh at the same time!
Rating:
Summary: Why This Book is Fun
Review: This short work by the author of the classic "Guns, Germs, and Steel" seeks to explain the evolutionary paths of distinctive human sexual characteristics. It does not, however, attempt to explain all sexual behavior in humans, focusing instead on general sexual behavior between men and women. Masturbation, homosexuality, and many other types of sexual behavior are not touched upon here, so if you find any of them fun, you will have to look elsewhere for reasons explaining why. Humans have several sexual traits that, even if not unique, are still highly unusual in animal species -- concealed ovulation in females, near constant female receptivity to sex, recreational sex, and female menopause. Diamond shows the most likely evolutionary explanations for why humans possess these traits. Some of the explanations are more plausible than others, but almost all of the arguments are interesting to read. As usual, Diamond writes well; the book is clear and concise and can be finished in an evening. Also, as usual, Diamond can't help but let his politics show in his writing; in one chapter, he gives a bizarre boost to male lactation and the notion that men might someday help their wives breastfeed their young.
Rating:
Summary: Why This Book is Fun
Review: This short work by the author of the classic "Guns, Germs, and Steel" seeks to explain the evolutionary paths of distinctive human sexual characteristics. It does not, however, attempt to explain all sexual behavior in humans, focusing instead on general sexual behavior between men and women. Masturbation, homosexuality, and many other types of sexual behavior are not touched upon here, so if you find any of them fun, you will have to look elsewhere for reasons explaining why. Humans have several sexual traits that, even if not unique, are still highly unusual in animal species -- concealed ovulation in females, near constant female receptivity to sex, recreational sex, and female menopause. Diamond shows the most likely evolutionary explanations for why humans possess these traits. Some of the explanations are more plausible than others, but almost all of the arguments are interesting to read. As usual, Diamond writes well; the book is clear and concise and can be finished in an evening. Also, as usual, Diamond can't help but let his politics show in his writing; in one chapter, he gives a bizarre boost to male lactation and the notion that men might someday help their wives breastfeed their young.
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