The body : a guide for occupants / Bill Bryson.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

How to build a human -- The outside : skin and hair -- Microbial you -- The brain -- The head -- Down the hatch : the mouth and throat -- The heart and blood -- The chemistry department -- In the dissecting room : the skeleton -- On the move : bipedalism and exercise -- Equilibrium -- The immune system -- Deep breath : the lungs and breathing -- Food, glorious food -- The guts -- Sleep -- In the nether regions -- In the beginning : conception and birth -- Nerves and pain -- When things go wrong : diseases -- When things go very wrong : cancer -- Medicine good and bad -- The end.

'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.