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The Body: A Guide for Occupants
by
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 fa ...more
Now he turns his attention inwards to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary fa ...more
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Hardcover, 450 pages
Published
October 15th 2019
by Doubleday Books
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I went into this book with the attitude of "of course, Bill Bryson can make anything interesting", but I was still a little unsure if this was the right book for me. There are definitely interesting aspects of the body, but I'm more of a "fun fact here, quirky tidbit there" kinda person. I wasn't sure I wanted to read a whole book full of words I can't pronounce. But, no, Bill Bryson really can make anything interesting.
His usual charismatic, undemanding style is all over this book. He begins wi ...more
His usual charismatic, undemanding style is all over this book. He begins wi ...more

I learned so much from this book. One of the things I learned was that continuing to learn and keeping my brain active will help me avoid dementia, so you should read this book, too. I highlighted many, many pages, so I’ll just offer a few highlights here.
The most interesting thing was reading about our skin, the tiny tiny layer that we makes us white or black or brown. Bryson watched a surgeon incise and peel back a sliver of skin a millimeter thick from the arm of cadaver. It was so thin it w ...more
The most interesting thing was reading about our skin, the tiny tiny layer that we makes us white or black or brown. Bryson watched a surgeon incise and peel back a sliver of skin a millimeter thick from the arm of cadaver. It was so thin it w ...more

Jan 10, 2020
Emily (Books with Emily Fox)
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
2019-releases,
audiobooks
This was actually really good!
Highly recommend it if the topic interested you, the audiobook was also great!
Highly recommend it if the topic interested you, the audiobook was also great!

Nov 11, 2019
Matthew
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Those with no fear of their own mortality
The definition of a “well” person?
Someone who hasn’t been examined yet
(loosely quoted from the book)
This book is two things:
- Really interesting trivia about the human body
- Terrifying
I love trivia, and this book had tons of it. This was not a deeply scientific analysis of the human body. It is just snippets and brief anecdotes from various regions of the body as Bryson takes you on a journey through our innerspace. If you are not into big fancy words and meandering analysis, then you need not w ...more
Someone who hasn’t been examined yet
(loosely quoted from the book)
This book is two things:
- Really interesting trivia about the human body
- Terrifying
I love trivia, and this book had tons of it. This was not a deeply scientific analysis of the human body. It is just snippets and brief anecdotes from various regions of the body as Bryson takes you on a journey through our innerspace. If you are not into big fancy words and meandering analysis, then you need not w ...more

To know that one does not know how not just even a tiny part of the body works is the first step to getting interested in exploring each fascinating, inner landscape.
From up to down, inside to outside, young to old, organ to nerve and so on goes the journey trough our miraculous wonder of nature whose amazing eyes are just sending this information to the brain of the reader.
Many myths about the body are shown and design flaws described, but after billion years of evolution, that´s no wonder. We ...more
From up to down, inside to outside, young to old, organ to nerve and so on goes the journey trough our miraculous wonder of nature whose amazing eyes are just sending this information to the brain of the reader.
Many myths about the body are shown and design flaws described, but after billion years of evolution, that´s no wonder. We ...more

(Throwback review) If you are in quarantine due to Covid-19 and if you want to read just one book, this is the one you should pick. Chapter 20 (When things go wrong) in this book is a must-read one as it is perfectly explaining the current scenario we are facing. This book will help us know more about our body, which might enable us to appreciate its uniqueness even when challenged it is to the extreme by a virus.
I read this book amid all the pandemonium I had to face as a Doctor and, more impor ...more
I read this book amid all the pandemonium I had to face as a Doctor and, more impor ...more

How to make a human body:
Blend together the right amount of each of 59 elements, at a cost of US$151,578.46 according to the Royal Society of Chemistry.
~Or~
If you don't have that kind of money lying about, you can also do it the old-fashioned way that involves heterosexual sex. I'm not here to judge your methods; make a human whichever way you please. What I am here to do is tell you that Bill Bryson has done it again! He has written yet another brilliant and vastly interesting book, thi ...more
Blend together the right amount of each of 59 elements, at a cost of US$151,578.46 according to the Royal Society of Chemistry.
~Or~
If you don't have that kind of money lying about, you can also do it the old-fashioned way that involves heterosexual sex. I'm not here to judge your methods; make a human whichever way you please. What I am here to do is tell you that Bill Bryson has done it again! He has written yet another brilliant and vastly interesting book, thi ...more

I like Bryson, his books are often amusing and informative. He has a good eye for details that will keep the reader engaged or outraged or just smile. This is a tour of the human body, but it includes stories and asides about people associated with the discovery of various diseases or a cure or a system in the body. Some books on this topic can get a bit carried away with long names for parts that involve endless Latin or Greek. A nice thing he does here when he does give these is to say what th
...more

I read this off and on for over a week, I think reading it straight through would not have left me time to ponder the information and possibly would have been a case of too much at one time. Our bodies, many systems and other developments of which I knew little all in one book. I actually own a copy because this is another that I feel deserves more than read. Or at least to have as a reference.
There is a huge amount of research that went into this book. Bryson is good and picking out informatio ...more
There is a huge amount of research that went into this book. Bryson is good and picking out informatio ...more

Be a bar trivia champion!
Want to dominate any biology questions at bar trivia?
The Body: A Guide for Occupants has you covered! For those of us who haven't had a biology class since we fulfilled some course requirement ages ago, Bryson gives an excellent overview of what doctors and scientists know about all our different body parts and bodily functions.
This book does for biology what books like Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong or A People's History ...more
Want to dominate any biology questions at bar trivia?

The Body: A Guide for Occupants has you covered! For those of us who haven't had a biology class since we fulfilled some course requirement ages ago, Bryson gives an excellent overview of what doctors and scientists know about all our different body parts and bodily functions.
This book does for biology what books like Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong or A People's History ...more

The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson is a well-researched user’s manual for anyone interested in how our bodies function. And, of course, we also have the opportunity to enjoy the Bryson wit. This is a field trip through the human body and I was astounded at the level of research needed to write such a book. And I admit there was so much I did not know about the body and how it is built to repair itself. This is an informative guide as well as a source of humour, now and again. Read it
...more

Well, if the dude can't get the difference between a feeding tube and a breathing tube coming out of someone's nose, I'm not sure how accurate his guide is going to be. Add in problems explaining kidney failure, gram staining and smallpox vaccines, and I think this is a solid 'miss.'
Most telling phrase from the review: "Recommended 'Not for the science, which can be found in a more detailed and accurate form elsewhere, but for the view, a sweep of landscape with endless little tragicomedies pla ...more
Most telling phrase from the review: "Recommended 'Not for the science, which can be found in a more detailed and accurate form elsewhere, but for the view, a sweep of landscape with endless little tragicomedies pla ...more

Until now, I only knew Bill Bryson for his snarky travelogues. My buddy-reader, however, informed me that his non-fiction book was very good indeed. Besides, many biology books suffer from the fact that their authors are great scientists but horrible writers. So I wanted to read something that had the potential to be entertaining as well as educational.
The book is divided into these chapters:

And yes, we did get a little bit of humour, but that wasn't because Bryson made fun of certain things, bu ...more
The book is divided into these chapters:

And yes, we did get a little bit of humour, but that wasn't because Bryson made fun of certain things, bu ...more

Bryson is a wonderful travel guide, and this time around he takes us through an enjoyable tour of the human body. The book is surprisingly detailed, for a popular-science book. Bryson exhibits his usual knack for the extraordinary and unusual, but despite veering close to it at times, he avoids the pitfall of making this book just a tour of the oddities of the human body.
Bryson takes just enough such detours to keep us amused, but just like a good tour guide ensures that we are adequately educa ...more
Bryson takes just enough such detours to keep us amused, but just like a good tour guide ensures that we are adequately educa ...more

For all of you other cyborgs and pure artificial intelligences out there, I should mention that this is a rather interesting primer on regular meat-sacks. It even has the distinction of not being science fiction at all.
But as the title suggests, outright occupancy usually comes with a rental charge. The bill always comes due.
I've read a few Brysons before... and my favorite has got to be A Short History of Nearly Everything. This one, from a regular knowledge-gathering stand, comes in as a tight ...more
But as the title suggests, outright occupancy usually comes with a rental charge. The bill always comes due.
I've read a few Brysons before... and my favorite has got to be A Short History of Nearly Everything. This one, from a regular knowledge-gathering stand, comes in as a tight ...more

A truly amazing compendium on the human body aka "a warm wobble of flesh!" Truly engaging and enlightening. Occasionally I wanted to fast forward to avoid the details, but mainly I was truly engaged, appalled or enthralled!
My personal favorite of Bill Bryson's anecdotal stories:
The emergency appendectomy on a US submarine during WWII. The ship's pharmacist assistant was ordered to operate without any knowledge or equipment, as he as was the senior medical personnel on board. This is a little min ...more
My personal favorite of Bill Bryson's anecdotal stories:
The emergency appendectomy on a US submarine during WWII. The ship's pharmacist assistant was ordered to operate without any knowledge or equipment, as he as was the senior medical personnel on board. This is a little min ...more

3.5 stars
I am joining a book club; unusual for me because I am not a hugely social animal. It is based at the university where I work for one day a week and it meets a lunch time, once every two months. This is the book for January; it’s not something I would have read in normal circumstances.
Bryson employs his usual wry and laconic style and applies it to the human body. This isn’t a medical text book, but it is detailed and covers pretty much what you would expect. Bryson does cover the histo ...more
I am joining a book club; unusual for me because I am not a hugely social animal. It is based at the university where I work for one day a week and it meets a lunch time, once every two months. This is the book for January; it’s not something I would have read in normal circumstances.
Bryson employs his usual wry and laconic style and applies it to the human body. This isn’t a medical text book, but it is detailed and covers pretty much what you would expect. Bryson does cover the histo ...more

Exercise regularly.
Eat sensibly.
Die anyway.
This anonymous quote is the heading of the last chapter of this book, "The End". I have to admit I would have been bored if I'd tried to read this straight through but tackling a few pages every night at bedtime turned out to be fascinating and educating. There is a lot of trivia about not just the body itself and how it works, but also about scientists and doctors and their discoveries, sometimes accidental, the sometimes wrong conclusions they came to ...more
Eat sensibly.
Die anyway.
This anonymous quote is the heading of the last chapter of this book, "The End". I have to admit I would have been bored if I'd tried to read this straight through but tackling a few pages every night at bedtime turned out to be fascinating and educating. There is a lot of trivia about not just the body itself and how it works, but also about scientists and doctors and their discoveries, sometimes accidental, the sometimes wrong conclusions they came to ...more

Shelve this next to Being Mortal by Atul Gawande in a collection of books that everyone should read – even if you’re a squeamish hypochondriac or you don’t normally choose nonfiction. Bryson is back on form with his latest, indulging his layman’s curiosity about how the body works. Now, I read a LOT of medical memoirs and popular science. I’ve read entire books about organ transplantation, sleep, dementia, the blood, the heart, evolutionary defects, surgery and so on, but in many cases these go
...more

This book was given to me as a Christmas present, and it was a great gift. As a fan of Bryson, I was surprised that I had not even heard of his new work of popular science. I am glad that it came to my attention, then, since this was my favorite Bryson book since A Short History of Nearly Everything. Structured as a tour of the human body, the book made me feel right at home.
No matter what the subject, Bryson’s style is consistent: snappy prose, engaging anecdotes, and fun facts, all tied toget ...more
No matter what the subject, Bryson’s style is consistent: snappy prose, engaging anecdotes, and fun facts, all tied toget ...more

Bill Bryson’s trademark humor is evident in this fascinating book that provides detailed descriptions of the body, how things function and history of discovery. A big takeaway is that although there have been great strides in what we know about science and medicine, he makes it clear just how much is still unknown about how and why things work.
This book would be perfect to serve as a primer for a high school health and wellness course. Thanks to Doubleday Books for the ARC in exchange for my ho ...more
This book would be perfect to serve as a primer for a high school health and wellness course. Thanks to Doubleday Books for the ARC in exchange for my ho ...more

I really enjoyed this book; it is very entertaining. There are so many interesting facts about every single part of the body in here. There are just enough stories and humor added in that it makes the book very readable; it never seems like it is too technical or dry, but keep in mind that it is still a book about body facts. It was very fascinating to learn just how much we don't know about the body and how or why it does what it does. I also found that there were quite a few things that I thou
...more

Bill Bryson, as usual, manages to make a difficult and complex topic completely accessible and enjoyable in The Body. Taking the reader on journey from the brain (my favourite chapter), endocrine system down to the lungs and beyond, every chapter is full of interesting facts that will entertain as well as inform.
Bryson just seems to have this ability in his writing to make the reader feel as though they're chatting with a friend about a subject that he's so clearly passionate about. It manages t ...more
Bryson just seems to have this ability in his writing to make the reader feel as though they're chatting with a friend about a subject that he's so clearly passionate about. It manages t ...more

4 ☆ characterized in turns by droll wit and stomach - churning descriptions
And with this elegant turn of sentiment, Bryson embarked on a journey of the human body, from top to botto ...more
Our bodies are a universe of 37.2 trillion cells operating in more or less perfect concert more or less all of the time. ... The miracle of human life is not that we are endowed with some frailties but we are not swamped by them. ...
You truly are a wonder. But then so, it must be said, is an earthworm.
And with this elegant turn of sentiment, Bryson embarked on a journey of the human body, from top to botto ...more

People who should read this: those who really, really enjoy book reports. People who should absolutely not read this: trans people, people with chronic pain, fat people, anyone with a degree in any aspect of biology, anyone who reads more than one popular science book a year.
The thing is, there are basically three ways you can go with a book like this. There’s the complete and in-depth approach, which is absolutey ruled out here; you can’t cover the human body completely in four years of medica ...more
The thing is, there are basically three ways you can go with a book like this. There’s the complete and in-depth approach, which is absolutey ruled out here; you can’t cover the human body completely in four years of medica ...more

What a marvelous book! Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors. His dry wit shines in all of his books. Before reading this book, it was hard for me to imagine what the book would be like. I've read some of Bryson's travel books--all delightful--but I couldn't image what a book about the body would be like. As it turns out, it is a tour book, written in the same style, as a metaphorical tour of the body.
Bryson interleaves talking about a lot of facts with interesting and often humorous anecdot ...more
Bryson interleaves talking about a lot of facts with interesting and often humorous anecdot ...more

Even for someone with a science/ medical background this was PHENOMENAL!
What an absolutely interesting and eye opening adventure into our bodies; and told in such a entertaining way!!!
Recommend for ANYONE and EVERYONE
Thanks to netgalley and Doubleday books for providing me with a copy of this book for my honest review.
What an absolutely interesting and eye opening adventure into our bodies; and told in such a entertaining way!!!
Recommend for ANYONE and EVERYONE
Thanks to netgalley and Doubleday books for providing me with a copy of this book for my honest review.

3.5 stars
This is like A Short History of Nearly Everything but for the body.
Had I not read so many medical books and watched endless hours of QI I would have given this a MUCH higher rating but because of this prior knowledge some sections felt like deja vu.
The scope of the book is impressive, Bill does not leave any stone (or rather muscle, cell, bacteria or organ) unexplored.
I also learned enough fascinating trivia which I plan to spring on unsuspecting friends at inappropriate times for my o ...more
This is like A Short History of Nearly Everything but for the body.
Had I not read so many medical books and watched endless hours of QI I would have given this a MUCH higher rating but because of this prior knowledge some sections felt like deja vu.
The scope of the book is impressive, Bill does not leave any stone (or rather muscle, cell, bacteria or organ) unexplored.
I also learned enough fascinating trivia which I plan to spring on unsuspecting friends at inappropriate times for my o ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Non Fiction Book ...: May/June 2020 - The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson | 35 | 71 | Jan 10, 2021 12:44AM | |
Goodreads România: || Biologie || The Body: A Guide for Occupants | 13 | 103 | Oct 04, 2020 09:21AM |
William McGuire "Bill" Bryson, OBE, FRS was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He settled in England in 1977, and worked in journalism until he became a full time writer. He lived for many years with his English wife and four children in North Yorkshire. He and his family then moved to New Hampshire in America for a few years, but they have now returned to live in the UK.
In The Lost Continent, Bil ...more
In The Lost Continent, Bil ...more
Articles featuring this book
Well, here we all are, sheltering in place, buying canned beans, and generally trying to figure out how to stay inside and keep our minds busy....
93 likes · 67 comments
27 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
“The most remarkable part of all is your DNA. You have a metre of it packed into every cell, and so many cells that if you formed all the DNA in your body into a single fine strand it would stretch ten billion miles, to beyond Pluto. Think of it: there is enough of you to leave the solar system. You are in the most literal sense cosmic.”
—
30 likes
“Just sitting quietly, doing nothing at all, your brain churns through more information in thirty seconds than the Hubble Space Telescope has processed in thirty years. A morsel of cortex one cubic millimeter in size—about the size of a grain of sand—could hold two thousand terabytes of information, enough to store all the movies ever made, trailers included, or about 1.2 billion copies of this book.”
—
21 likes
More quotes…