The Body. A Guide for Occupants

"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.

How to Build a Human
The Outside: Skin and Hair
Microbial You
The Brain
The Head
Down the Hatch: the Mouth and Throat
The Heart and Blood
The Chemistry Department
In the Dissecting Room: The Skeleton
On the Move: Bipedalism and Exercise
Equilibrium
The Immune System
Deep Breath: The Lungs and Breathing
Food, Glorious Food
The Guts
Sleep
Into the Nether Regions
In the Beginning: Conception and Birth
Nerves and Pain
When Things Go Wrong: Diseases
When Things Go Very Wrong: Cancer
Medicine Good and Bad
The End
Notes on sources
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Picture acknowledgments
Index