The Body: A Guide for Occupants Paperback – 26 Jan. 2021

This is one of those books I feel so strongly that everyone should read that I keep quoting from it to friends and probably boring everyone to tears about.You really do need to read it for yourself to understand how vital it is for people to grasp how their bodies work, and how although much of what goes wrong is out of our control, a lot, on the other hand, is down to our life style choices (our fondness for sugary and processed foods and general reluctance to exercise).I was also shocked on many occasions in the book - for example the grim cancer survival rates in Britain compared to the rest of the better off nations.I felt quite faint reading a description of how mastectomies used to be performed and about "neglected tropical diseases".If the author were not so well known and respected I would have several times thought the statistics he quoted couldn't possibly be accurate, but as I know that is not the case I just muttered "no" and "wow" and "surely not" as I read. I was amazed about Mitochondrial Eve, and the shocking maternal death rate in the USA and their extremely low life expectancy compared to their colossal health care spending, as well as TB rates in London (rivalling those of Brazil and Nigeria).What an incredibly prescient book too. He mentions the dangers of zoonotic diseases and asks a leading expert what he thought the biggest risk to humans was and he replied "flu". A few months later the Covid pandemic started and Bryson was able to add an afterword shortly before the book went to print, urging world leaders to be better prepared - because of course there will be many more these viral pandemics.The only slightly jarring note in the entertaining, fascinating and important book is the repeated use of "we don't know about X, Y and Z." I got the point early on, we know a great deal, but in the grand scheme of things we are only just beginning to discover our bodies and how they work.

Much better known as a travel writer, in recent years Bryson has turned his talents to more complex subjects, such as language, historical figures, science and now this volume, the human body. As he proved in his hugely successful book "A Short History of (Nearly) Everything)" Bryson possesses language skills that translate complicated science into easy-to-digest morsels, usually with an added twist of his sardonic humor to heighten the flavour.Nobody does science and fact quite like Bill Bryson: he has hit the nail on the head again with this offering, which should be required reading for all schoolkids from the age they can understand big words. Really, it kicks into redundancy all those dull, dry fact-on-fact-after-fact text books most of us struggled through at school. Kids will learn more much more quickly via Bryson's unique approach.So, whether you're ten years old or 110 years old, there is still much to be learned from Bryson's fabulous volume. Honestly, you'll learn stuff about you that will amaze and astound you, perhaps even scare or nauseate you. Whatever your reaction one thing I can guarantee is that at points you'll snicker, giggle and actually laugh out loud as Bill Bryson does what he does best: entertains. And, that, folks, is the very best thing about this volume - and, to be fair, all of Bryson's work - they entertain as well and inform. What more could you ask for?

I have read many of the Bill Bryson travel books over the years and a couple of the more static ones as well. This, of course, is a sort of travel book - just travelling around the body rather than a country.There are 445 pages, split into 23, named, chapters - each based on a section of the body or a bodily experience/function.It was first published in 2019 with this version being printed in 2020.Immediately, the reader is thrown into Bill Bryson's huge bank of research material where the almost irrelevant sits alongside the absolutely vital.The book was published before the Covid pandemic so it is particularly interesting to read about subjects such as viruses and loss of smell without the inevitable references that would have appeared a couple of years on.As ever, the author takes a logical approach to his subject as he gradually works his way around the body - educating and entertaining as he goes.Bill Bryson is an intelligent man and proficient at being able to read scientific information then put it into terms that a general reader will find interesting (and understand!). He does this in a way that includes the reader, always respecting them and without being patronising.It's many years since I studied Biology at school yet many of the principles I learnt are discussed in this book (and it is a discussion as BB is continually having a conversation with himself) - much of the basic facts have remained the same whilst many of the details have moved on or been disproved.Many contributors are quoted and Bill Bryon has met up with a few of them. Where possible, he always tries to describe the person first, engaging the reader and hoping that if you like someone then you are more likely to trust them.It's clear that many widely believed facts about the body have been proved to be wrong or, at the very least, are widely believed to be wrong by the scientific community (for example, the belief that the appendix has no purpose).During his research it seems to be a common situation that the wrong person is credited with findings. Often an individual is made famous by publishing a breakthrough that someone else found. Whenever he finds this. BB puts the record straight (although I suspect the correct names will not stick in my head for long).Occasionally the science gets too much but he always quickly brings it down again.Fascinating read where I learnt a lot.