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Chargement... The Body: A Guide for Occupantspar Bill Bryson
Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. I love Bill Bryson for his humor. This book didn't disappoint. Just enough technical mumbo-jumbo about the body to understand without having to be in the medical profession. Sprinkled throughout with interesting tidbits and stories. ( ) You know, this was an interesting read generally, lots of factoids and snapshots of the people involved in our current understanding of the body. However, I felt throughout like Bryson was trying really hard to write a "Bill Bryson" book about the body that would rival A Short History of Nealy Everything and I can't help but feel like it came up short. I'm glad I read it, partially because it gives a good sense for how much baloney is out there masquerading as knowledge and also because it makes one appreciate having access to a 21st Century approach to medicine (imperfect as it may be). In his inimical style, Bill Bryson lays bare all about human body, from working of various body parts and organ systems, to what causes and prevents diseases, to discovery and invention of medical sciences, to impact and consequences of lifestyle, making this book a packed capsule for anyone wanting to know and understand what a wonder human body (and by extension, living organism) is. Even in my limited pedestrian understanding, there are as many wonders inside our body as there are in the rest of the universe. While I knew most of the major stuff in the book beforehand and hence incremental value for me was limited, I can appreciate how this book will boost a typical person's awareness manifold. However capturing a very technical subject full of jargons in layperson book was always going to be hard, and hence despite running in over 400 pages, book feels just rushing through topics many times, or explaining external symptoms rather than internal workings. I will not blame Bill for this, but because of this reason and because of a little less quantity of funny quips than is his usual style, one feels less than a absolute delight after reading this book. The book is eminently suitable for kids too, as most his books are, and except for one or two chapters on reproductive organs, depending on your parental judgement, can be read by or read to kids as young as five years old. Like his other book 'Short History of Nearly Everything,' this should indeed be read to kids to ignite the scientific temperament and wonderful awe. Oh wow, this book blew me away! Absolutely fascinating, filled with a plethora of captivating anecdotes ranging from the macabre to the heartbreaking, THE BODY is one of those books that will stay with me long after I've turned the last page. Bryson has an incredible ability to make complex topics digestible and easily understood. His writing style is approachable, clever (in a good way!) and thoroughly engaging. I couldn't put this book down! I highlighted entire passages and made copious notes as I read. I'm excited to pick up more of Bryson's books, and I'm eager to find other authors who write in this vein. (As an aside, I just noticed all the bodily puns I used in this review. Reading this book has certainly had an impact on my brain!) Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC! Did you ever wonder how many times a day you blink? Or who invented the calorie and why we are so obsessed with counting them? These answers and a multitude of others can be found in THE BODY, a wonderfully wry book of facts and stories about, well, the body we occupy. Each chapter is devoted to one of the body’s systems (the gut, the nervous system, as well as sleep and the function of glands, etc) so as to build upon the last chapter’s information. Here’s an interesting factoid from the food chapter: fruits have been genetically manipulated to be sweeter than they were hundreds of years ago. The author purports that apples in Shakespeare’s day were no sweeter than today’s carrots. I’m trying to decide whether Bryson’s droll wit or the abundance of information about our body is the best part of the book. You will end up learning things without even trying – there isn’t any deep scientific talk so you don’t need a degree in biology to easily read this book. There isn’t a plot so much as a description of the body part, its function, and then facts and history about it. For example, in the chapter entitled “Gut” we learn how our digestive system works, then we learn about E. coli and other dangerous microbes, there is a bit about food safety, and then it’s 1822 and we are reading about an unfortunate accident that left a hole in a fur trapper’s stomach. This fur trapper eventually became something of a living experiment due to the injury (Google “Beaumont and St Martin” for more details if you wish). This was an illuminating and droll read – one of the better books I have read this summer. Run, don’t walk to get your copy! You will be thoroughly enlightened and entertained, and even a bit grossed out - in a good way.
"He has waded through a PhD’s worth of articles, interviewed a score of physicians and biologists, read a library of books, and had a great deal of fun along the way. There’s a formula at work – the prose motors gleefully along, a finely tuned engine running on jokes, factoids and biographical interludes." ContientFait l'objet d'une adaptation dansContient un guide de lecture pour étudiantPrix et récompensesListes notables
"Bill Bryson, bestselling author of A Short History of Nearly Everything, takes us on a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body. As compulsively readable as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best, a must-read owner's manual for everybody. Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body--how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Bryson-esque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular. As Bill Bryson writes, "We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted." The Body will cure that indifference with generous doses of wondrous, compulsively readable facts and information"-- Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)612Technology Medicine and health Human physiologyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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