The Body: A Guide for Occupants [Paperback] Bryson, Bill Paperback – 1 January 2020

Bill Bryson has done it again! The Body: A Guide for Occupants is an incredible tour of our most remarkable possession — the human body — and Bryson delivers it with his trademark wit, curiosity, and storytelling charm.What makes this book stand out is how Bryson blends science with everyday language. You don’t need to be a biology nerd to understand what’s going on. He takes you through every system — from the brain and the heart to the skin and the skeleton — and fills each chapter with fascinating facts, strange anecdotes, and stories of scientists who changed our understanding of how we work.I loved how he made complex information feel approachable, and even humorous at times. Who knew learning about kidneys or gut bacteria could be this entertaining?That said, don’t expect a textbook. This is more of an engaging narrative — educational, yes, but also incredibly fun. Perfect for readers who love science, trivia, or just want to understand their body better.

Great book to get an overview of our body. The quality of the book was awesome

This book indicates overall functioning of the human body, the blood, the brain, cancer, diabetics and various other ailments. Apart from this other experiments and medical break through is recorded and elaborated in detail in this book.BILL Bryanson, indeed researched his subjects before drafting this book in retrospective with medical terminology. Overall it’s a good and fun read to grasp the concepts of functioning of human body and the way it goes out of way, to destroy itself.At last illustrations were and pictorial representations in the medical realm are louder than a thousand words.

This is probably going to be my shortest book review ever! This book is simply a collection of facts, largely fun facts, about different parts of the body — the skin, hair, brain, head, the mouth, and so on. Bryson has achieved two remarkable things: (1) he has created a 400-page encyclopedia of the human body, and (2) he has made this the most fun-to-read encyclopedia ever.Since there is nothing much to review really, here are my top 10 fun facts from the book.(1) The human body is essentially a collection of inert elements — the same as in a pile of dirt.(2) The Royal Society of Chemistry calculated that assembling actor Benedict Cumberbatch from his basic chemical components would cost £96,546.79.(3) Race is merely a sliver of epidermis about a millimeter thick.(4) If flattened out, our lungs would cover a tennis court; our blood vessels, if laid end to end, would wrap around Earth 2.5 times; and our DNA, if stretched out, would extend beyond Pluto.(5) We grow 8 meters of hair in our lifetime.(6) Visual inputs take one-fifth of a second to process, so the brain continuously forecasts what the world will look like a fifth of a second ahead — we spend our entire lives living in a world that doesn't quite exist yet.(7) Volume doubles approximately every 6 decibels, meaning a 96-decibel sound isn't just slightly louder than a 90-decibel sound — it's twice as loud.(8) Although everyone reads and pronounces the last blood group as the letter "O," Landsteiner (who discovered blood types) actually meant it to be zero, since this type showed no clumping reaction.(9) During a single day of breathing, you likely inhale at least one molecule that was once exhaled by every person who has ever lived.(10) While studying specimens, Henking noticed one chromosome that always remained separate from the others. He named it "X" simply because it was mysterious, not because of its shape.Pros: Lots of interesting facts about the human body, comprehensive yet conciseCons: It's just a collection of interesting facts about the human body!

I've enjoyed reading Bill Bryson's "A short history of almost everything" and thus picked up this with intrigue. Bryson's ability to write and weave research with narration is simply amazing and infective. I read this over 6-8 months because one cannot absorb it as a start to finish exercise. Always shared snippets with family members and infact was requested to chair and discuss the BODY at a recent book club meet of a reputed heritage Library in South India.

I didn't expected it to be so good.The authors has a very interesting and Humours way of delivering information you won't get bored or bombarded with all the facts .I didn't expected a book on this subject can be this humours.If you want to understand your body more or in general want to have some knowledge it's a great read .Highly Highly recommend.

The book is a mine of knowledge on human body delivered in a lucid and story-telling way interspersed with related anecdotes.The only problem is that it completely ignores the contribution and statistics from developing world. Surprisingly, there is no single mention of India! The only Asian nations which find mention are Japan and Singapore.The author, it seems, is heavily biased towards western world and doesn't bother a bit to even look at the developing one.Overall the book is a must read and collection worthy work.

If you are truly interested in what goes in various facets of your body without delving too much into medical jargon , this book is for you. This was a wonderful read , vivid descriptions, a bit of history , humor and profound thoughts all merged into one.