The Body
A Guide For Occupants
by Bill Bryson
Very good, especially at the beginning. Later on it got a little shallow, in that he seemed to be just repeating things everyone knows. Or maybe not--maybe it's just me. I know a decent amount about gut flora and infectious diseases, so I wasn't learning anything new. But it was still entertaining to read.
And snarkily humorous, throughout. Highly recommended. For everyone.
a quote:
What is surely most curious and extraordinary about our brain is how largely unnecessary it is. To survive on Earth, you don't need to be able to write music or engage in philosophy--you really only need to be able to outthink a quadruped--so why have we invested so much energy and risk in producing mental capacity that we don't really need? That is just one of the many things about your brain that your brain won't tell you.
I'm not sure I agree--if you've ever read Born To Run, you'll understand all the complexity of thought involved in tracking down a quadruped and running it into the ground. It's more complicated that philosophy, that's for sure. Maybe not music. But maybe I'm just saying that because I have more respect for music than I do for philosophy.
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