The Body

I have read about five of Bill Bryson's books and I find him to be a very entertaining author. This time I read The Body: A Guide For Occupants first published in the fall of 2019. In my version he added an update about the COVID crisis. He starts out with the head and goes down from there. As he describes each organ and their function he also includes diseases of that organ and how they were treated in the past and how they are treated now. The United States does not come out looking good at all as we spend more on health care than any other country and have worse health outcomes that many countries including some underdeveloped countries. Sometimes women have worse outcomes and sometimes men have worse outcomes and no one knows why. I learned that some of the things I was taught about bodies are not true. There are not five areas of the tongue that taste sweet, salty, bitter, savory or sour. All of our tongue tastes those things. And we don't use only 10 % of our brains. That wasn't true either. I thought it was a great book to read.