The Body: A Guide for Occupants

 

Summary (from the publisher): In the bestselling, prize-winning A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson achieved the seemingly impossible by making the science of our world both understandable and entertaining to millions of people around the globe.

Now he turns his attention inwards to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts and astonishing stories The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up.

A wonderful successor to A Short History of Nearly Everything, this book will have you marveling at the form you occupy, and celebrating the genius of your existence, time and time again.

Review: This entertaining work of non-fiction presents a journey through the human body, providing an overview of each system. Perfect for laymen, each chapter gives an entertaining historical and medical background of each system in the body, including most common problems, examples of particular interest and note, and differences around the globe. 

In typical Bill Bryson manner, he has written yet another entertaining read on yet another topic. This book is perfect for the non-medical person who is looking for an introduction to the body and its medical history without getting bogged down in minutiae and complex science. Bryson did an excellent job of making this book feel informative but also just long enough to be entertaining. Each chapter of this truly could and likely is detailed in far greater detail in a standalone book (or many of them) but this is a great introduction. I found the case examples he included throughout of particular interest, such as the man who had hiccups for 68 years. 

If you're looking for a scholarly medical reference book, this is likely not it. However, this was a fascinating read and I still learned a lot. The major takeaway from reading this is how little we truly know about the human body and how much of medicine is just a shot in the dark. 

Stars: 4