Editor’s Comment: Bryson is well known for his variety of interests, from his ambitious “A Short History of Nearly Everything” to a delightful childhood memoir I read called “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid”. “The Body” fascinated me with startling details of how our body works. Chapters are broken into parts: brain, heart, lungs as well as systems: immune, chemistry and skeleton. Bryson adds a point of view, such as his concerns over the overuse of antibiotics. (see excerpt) I’m recommending this book with only two promises, it’s far more readable than your biology textbook and you will understand a lot more about the only body you’ll ever own when you’re done.
Excerpt: “…antibiotics are prescribed for 70% of acute bronchitis cases, even though guidelines explicitly state that they are of no use there. Even more appallingly, in the United States 80% of antibiotics are fed to farm animals, mostly to fatten them…as a consequence most Americans consume secondhand antibiotics in their food (even some labeled as organic) without knowing it.”