Bill Bryson

THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER _______ '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 _______ ‘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

A Guide for Occupants

The Body

Miyamoto Musashi

An interesting thing about touch is that the brain doesn’t just tell you how something feels, but how it ought to feel. That’s why the caress of a lover feels wonderful, but the same touch by a stranger would feel creepy or horrible. It’s also why it is so hard to tickle yourself.

As with so much else, you experience the world that your brain allows you to experience.

Sad fact that despite this whole progress in all fields, we can still increase the chances to harm ourselves.

Remarkably, even with all the improvements in care, you are 70 percent more likely to die from heart disease today than you were in 1900.

“You shouldn’t ever try to kill yourself by cutting your wrists, by the way,” he says. “All of those things going in are wrapped in a protective band called a fascial sheath, which makes it really hard to get to the arteries. Most people who cut their wrists fail to kill themselves, which is no doubt a good thing.” He is briefly thoughtful. “It’s also really hard to kill yourself by jumping from a height,” he adds. “The legs become a kind of crumple zone. You can make a real mess of yourself, but you are very likely to survive. Killing yourself is actually difficult. We are designed not to die.”

The Body quotes

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