The Body

A Guide for Occupants

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The Body

By: Bill Bryson

Narrated by: Bill Bryson

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About this listen

'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.’

In the best-selling, prize-winning A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson achieved the seemingly impossible by making the science of our world both understandable and entertaining to millions of people around the globe.

Now he turns his attention inwards 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 makeup.

Biological Sciences

Biology

Science

Thought-Provoking

Funny

Inspiring

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Brain Power | Your brain is marvellously efficient. It requires only about 400 calories of energy a day — about the same as you get in a blueberry muffin. Try running your laptop for 24 hours on a muffin and see how far you get.

Breathe Easy | Unpacked, you are positively enormous. Your lungs, smoothed out, would cover a tennis court, and the airways within them would stretch from London to Moscow. The length of all your blood vessels would take you two and a half times around the Earth.

The Wonders of DNA | If you formed all the DNA in your body into a single fine strand it would stretch 10 billion miles, to beyond Pluto. Think of it: there is enough of you to leave the solar system. You are in the most literal sense cosmic.

Keep Cool | The idea that we lose most of our heat through the top of our heads is a myth. The top of your head accounts for about two percent of your body surface area, and is, on most of us, pretty well insulated by hair, so the top of your head will never be a good radiator.

Inside Your Head | A morsel of brain no bigger than a grain of sand holds 2,000 terabytes of information, enough to store all the movies ever made, trailers included.

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Behind the scenes

Watch our exclusive interview with the best-selling author as he reveals the inspiration behind The Body.

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Editor reviews

“Between the mysterious, the unexpected, the unknown and the undiscovered The Body: A Guide for Occupants takes us through all the weird and wonderful parts of the human body with humour, historical anecdotes and some truly jaw-dropping facts. Somehow, with all that jam packed in, listening to it still feels like an entertaining coffee with an old friend. I have loved many of Bill Bryson’s books but I think this one may have just jostled its way to the top of my list of favourites. Definitely take a listen if you’ve ever wondered why or how your body does what it does, or, if not, take a listen for the multitude of amazing facts you can pull out at your next awkward dinner party.” (Alex, Audible Editor)

“In this illuminating history of the human form, Bill Bryson presents scientific research in an accessible way, introducing a host of individuals including the world’s first kidney transplant recipient and the Nobel Prize-winning Peter Medawar. Covering everything from sleep to immunity, I came away from listening to the audiobook with a newfound appreciation and respect for my body. A perfect listen for new and existing Bill Bryson fans alike.” (Jess, Audible Editor)

The life and times of Bill Bryson

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951, Bill Bryson now resides in the UK. His best-selling, wry-humoured books cover travel, the English language, history and popular science.
In 1972, longing to experience the wider world, Bryson left his home state and toured Europe, delighting in its strangeness. Returning the following year, he took a job at a psychiatric hospital before embarking on a career in journalism. His first published book, The Lost Continent (1989), recounts a tour of America, though he’s claimed this wasn’t a travel book. “It was more sociological” he says. “I was looking at this country that I’d grown up in and seeing how it had changed – and how I had changed.”

Most relevant

Informative for the lay person and detailed enough to satisfy you. His sense of humour shines through and cheers even the darkest of corners of our fleshy selves. Don't be that person, read the manual.
4 stars overall because Bryson books are all warm, comforting walks through gentle hillsides to me now. It felt like you'd been shrunk and swallowed by some enormous human. James isn't in the giant peach any more.

Another great Bryson.