Book Review: The Body by Bill Bryson

 Book: The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson

Genre: non-fiction

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This one was a book club read and I am actually surprised that the book club voted it in! A  hefty non-fiction? That's quite rare for us! But it was already on my shelf and I'm so glad to have had the push to actually read it, even though I was already intrigued enough to buy it. I started it late, with only about a five days before the book club deadline, and I read it fast and easy! How did that happen? 

Because, it was fascinating and kept me awake and interested, despite some detail that was very scientific and over my head. That's how! It was all just so fascinating.

Sadly, I didn't mark it up or take notes or stick post its in it to remember all the bits that really made me go... Oh really? And so writing a review is tricky because I can't list all these things. But just know, there were tons of them!

We learn a lot about the spreading of germs and viruses, which, as you might guess, is quite a timely subject. We go on a sort of journey through the body and learn how all the different thing work, eyes, ears, brain, heart, lungs, stomach etc... including all the organs we don't even know what they do. Everything! We are told stories along the way of strange and bizarre cases where people had really weird things go wrong. We are told about the scientists and doctors who studied all the different parts over the years, and about their breakthroughs and failures and crazy stories. We are told lots of crazy fascinating statistics and numbers that make us go WOW. And we are told many many scientific terms that is a lot to take in and process. 

All this with the humorous style that we should expect from a Bill Bryson book... and you'll know what I mean if you've read one. It's absolutely delightful. It makes me want to go and read every single one of his books. For real. He can make any subject interesting and relatable. I love that. I envy him his job and talent. How fun would this be? 

Let me give a little warning here though... if you are the type (like some people in my family) that will read something and then instantly think that you have that thing, or feel that symptom and imagine that problem in your own body, then this book isn't for you! If you are at all worried about the amount of germs around us and the craziness that more things don't go wrong with our bodies, then, this book might not be for you! It will put way too many ideas into your head!

Anyway, I feel just a touch smarter for having read this one, and a lot more appreciative of  my body, this thing I have that is quite a miracle even when I hate it and curse it all the time! We need to take better care of ourselves and our body will give back if we do. I am glad that I'm in the middle of this life style change as I read this because it made me feel much less guilty than I would have been otherwise... I am currently trying and I'll give myself a pat on the back for that!