The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson

It’s been awhile since I posted on this blog. I’ve been reading lots of books and even broke my reading goal of 38 goals in the month of May. I started drafting this book’s review some weeks ago. I decided to go back to it and some other book reviews after a significant event in my life.

I’ve been reading Bryon’s books for over twenty years. I really enjoy him as a writer. His memoirs are better than a lot of these nonfiction catch-all topic books generally. I still learn a couple things.

After a year of this pandemic, this book would be a hypochondriac’s nightmare (or dream perhaps). There are so many things to make one sick. I find that most of this book was averaging 3 stars. It was long and mildly interesting, but it meanders in a way too. It took me awhile to read. It was nice and well written in Bryson’s style, but it didn’t knock me over for the most part.

As I approached the end of the book and the topic of aging and death, the book’s topic started crossing into my life. I had a significant conversation about death with a close friend of mine who was very ill at the time. After that, I read the end of this book. The book’s reflection of of illness and death made more thoughtful about mortality. It reminded me that death how it is the most common thing about our lives .

A couple days after I finished this book, one of my parents passed away suddenly. It was a significant loss which I still grieve and mourn. In a strange way, this book may have helped me a little to prepare for it. It was the last thing I read before my loved one passed away.

I liked the end of the book and I elevated the book to 4 stars.

Read March 6 – May 6, 2021. Read mostly in late April and May.

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