Bill Bryson the Body- A guide for Occupants
Audiobook
Genre Non fictional
Rating 4/5 for the narration and occasional comical quips typical of Bill! 3/5 for the effort and 2/5 for he actual medical information
Listening time around 15 hours but if you increase the speed to 1.2 the time is around 11 hours without any reduction of understanding!
The grammar and diction is spot on for English words but of course Bill understandably falters with the medical terminology!
Now Bill is primarily a historian, a journalist and in the heart, a funny guy!
I am guessing that one fine day he had an ailment for which he would have gone to the doctor and he would have felt better and that experience would have made him fascinated with the human body and so the journey to the discovery would have begun!
So in a typical history of everything Bill starts every chapter with quotes by great people and some great (i am guessing!) doctors! And like we medical students do in dissection, start from the skin inwards!
So every page is filled with information on the tissue or skin or organ or the function or Bill’s strongest point; History!
He gives a brief description on each and every part of the body like eyes, ears, nose and everything else in between!
He tells you about the miracle organ which is the brain and how many over the age of 60 have some dementia! He tells about Alzheimer’s and its history and the inevitable no treatment!
Most of the disease described by Bill follows the same pattern, first an elaborate history, then the treatment options and the certain conclusion that there is no treatment! He does that with Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart attack and what not!
He talks about diet without any conclusion or a fixed plan! He does not even conclude that diet more in fibre is good because he would present some vague paper which says the opposite! The same with many procedures in the medical field! From all this I am guessing that either Bill did not get a good treatment in some hospital or that he has not realised that modern medicine has no cure for old age!
Of old age itself he mentions that it is not used as a cause of death in America! He also talks about smoking and its effect then he like a pattern concludes that lung cancer can happen without smoking! It is almost as if he is trying to be so neutral that it’s extreme!
He talks about exercise on that we must spend at least two hours on it and then he predictably sates that just because you exercise does not mean that you will have a long life!
It is like Bill shows candy to a kid and takes it away just as suddenly!
In spite of his very obvious disdain for the medical professional, almost every medical fact and quote is attributed to a doctor or another!
His research is vast though but then in the age of internet, you can always get this information with the click of a button or just ask your virtual assistant!
I must congratulate Bill though that he has spent so much time in understanding the function of an organ and trying to understand the history of a disease and in that it is a great effort!
Then he talks about the many wasteful tests or treatment given by the medical professionals which again reeks of a personal prejudice if nothing else.
He talks about antibiotics and how the incessant use may lead to resistance and about similar medications which are being regularly prescribed without any apparent indications or effect quoting some paper or study which is being vague especially since in medical science new evidences keep coming.
Prophetically though he quotes one quote by a doctor about which will be the most dreaded disease to fight in the future and the doctor says, “a disease like flu!” Since this book was written much before COVID; this is surreal!
In the end there is an extended book bonus on sound and ear and that probably was the best part of the book for me since I am an ENT surgeon!
For a medical professionals, this is a good refresher book and too simple while for a non medical professional it’s a good guide book on how your body works though it would have been amazing if it was written by a Medical Professional.
All in all a deeply engrossing book without a boring topic if you are interested in your body!
Go for it!
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