And just in case the text starts seeming any less believable, in case the gory stories of lobotomy and mastectomy dull away as you read them, there’s a good collection of photographs in the book to remind you of how recent, painful and arduous this journey of knowledge has been. Each chapter contains in equal parts contemporaneous knowledge of what we believe today richly coupled with how (more often than not via a painful share of human experiments) we reached this understanding, what still remains to be explored and gives credits to some forgotten heroes through this journey. The collection of these quotes is quite telling about the authors personal – lots of Emily Dickinson and Shakespeare- perhaps also testimony to his American- British life. Chapters begin with brief quotes below some uninspiring little illustrations. The book is arranged into perfectly sized chapters carefully dedicated to parts of our body, body functions stringed together through birth and death. His description of the ‘ cosmic sense’ of ourselves comes from a deep admiration of the many unknowns, knowns and discoveries about our bodies. The hyperbole may tax you for a bit in the beginning, but in awhile, the reader would admire that Bryson’s passion was built on the able shoulders of very decent research. If you are looking for one, I recommend this one from The Guardian.īut most of all, I recommend reading the book. There are a ton of good reviews that try to ‘shorten’ the rich information in these 400 pages and offer some of the most popular snippets from the book. Having had years of work experience (and of course, life experience) with it and yet limited limited formal education in Biology - I liked how the title seems to indicate, we are just occupants of this beauty, and this book is merely a guide. Yet, something about the title of this book 'A Guide for Occupants' was winsome.
To me, the pursuit of knowledge is a slow, carefully curated process. A tad bit old fashioned - I don't believe in acquiring knowledge by reading a book titled 'A short history of nearly everything'.
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