The Body: A Guide for Occupants – The #1 Sunday Times Bestseller
Author(s): Bill Bryson (Author)
- Publisher: Black Swan
- Publication Date: 23 July 2020
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 544 pages
- ISBN-10: 0552779903
- ISBN-13: 9780552779906
Book Description
#1 Bestseller in both hardback and paperback: SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 ROYAL SOCIETY INSIGHT INVESTMENT SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE
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‘A directory of wonders.’ – The Guardian
‘Jaw-dropping.’ – The Times
‘Classic, wry, gleeful Bryson…an entertaining and absolutely fact-rammed book.’ – The Sunday Times
‘It is a feat of narrative skill to bake so many facts into an entertaining and nutritious book.‘– The Daily Telegraph
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‘We spend our whole lives in one body and yet most of us have practically no idea how it works and what goes on inside it. The idea of the book is simply to try to understand the extraordinary contraption that is us.’
Bill Bryson sets off 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 new book is an instant classic. It will have you marvelling at the form you occupy, and celebrating the genius of your existence, time and time again.
‘What I learned is that we are infinitely more complex and wondrous, and often more mysterious, than I had ever suspected. There really is no story more amazing than the story of us.’ Bill Bryson
Editorial Reviews
Review
A directory of wonders. Extraordinary stories about the heart, lungs, genitals … plus some anger and life advice – all delivered in the inimitable Bryson style — Gavin Francis ― Guardian Published On: 2019-09-28
Remarkable … Every page is dense with scientific facts written as vividly as a thriller, as well as answers to conundrums such as why we don’t fall out of bed when we are asleep … It is woven through with the kind of human stories that Bryson has made his trademark. ―
Mail on Sunday Published On: 2019-09-01
Readable and useful … witty, jargon-free prose that glides you through 400 pages. It’s fun to read because it’s not just comprehensive, but quirky. — Richard Morrison ―
The Times Published On: 2019-09-27
SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019: ‘so packed with arresting facts (you eat 60 tons of food in a lifetime) and unlikely anecdotes (such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s six weeks with a half-sovereign lodged in his throat) that you barely notice the sheer volume of anatomical knowledge you’re digesting … makes complex subjects simple and eminently entertaining.’ ― Sunday Times Published On: 2019-11-24
It is a feat of narrative skill to bake so many facts into an entertaining and nutritious book..where Byrson really shines is in his imaginative glosses on the facts he has collected. ―
The Daily Telegraph Published On: 2019-09-28
The extraordinary story of what we are made of and how we work … This revelatory book reads as captivatingly as a thriller. — Teresa Levonian Cole ―
Country Life Published On: 2019-11-06
Through anecdotes about scientific history and startling facts that seem too extraordinary to be true―the DNA in one person, if stretched out, would measure billions of miles and reach beyond Pluto―Bryson draws the reader into his subject. … Bryson’s tone is both informative and inviting, encouraging the reader, throughout this exemplary work, to share the sense of wonder he expresses at how the body is constituted and what it is capable of.
― Publishers’ Weekly Published On: 2019-08-23
Bryson rummages about in our vital organs, emerging with a parade of fascinating facts. ―
Daily Mirror
‘Classic, wry, gleeful Bryson… richly interesting… an entertaining and absolutely fact-rammed book. If it sells hundreds of thousands of copies, like the last one, it will be no bad thing.’ ―
The Sunday Times Published On: 2019-09-29
[Bill] takes us with him, wondering at the complex functions of the tongue, seeing him stick a finger in the aorta…The book’s a bestseller. ―
The Sunday Times
From the Back Cover
THE BODY: A Guide for Occupants is an extraordinary exploration of the human body which will have you marvelling at the form you occupy. If you’ve ever wondered what really goes on inside your head, heart and beyond, Bill Bryson will help you understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up. Bill explains what inspired him to take on this exciting and ambitious project: ‘We spend our whole lives in one body and yet most of us have practically no idea how it works and what goes on inside it. The idea of the book is simply to try to understand the extraordinary contraption that is us. What I learned is that we are infinitely more complex and wondrous, and often more mysterious, than I had ever suspected. There really is no story more amazing than the story of us.’
About the Author
Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. His bestselling books include The Road to Little Dribbling, Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, One Summer and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. In a national poll, Notes from a Small Island was voted the book that best represents Britain. His acclaimed work of popular science, A Short History of Nearly Everything, won the Aventis Prize and the Descartes Prize, and was the biggest selling non-fiction book of its decade in the UK. His new book The Body: A Guide for Occupants was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize and is an international bestseller.
Bill Bryson was Chancellor of Durham University 2005-2011. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society. He lives in England.
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