If we disassemble you, you are truly enormous. If someone were to straighten and stretch your lungs, they would cover a tennis court, and the airways inside them would reach from London to Moscow. The length of all the blood vessels would wrap around the Earth two and a half times. The most remarkable part of all this is your DNA. You have a meter of it tucked inside every cell, and you have so many cells that if you made all the DNA in your body a single thin thread, its length would be ten billion miles, reaching beyond Pluto. Think about it: there is enough material in yourself to reach beyond the solar system. You belong to the universe, in the most literal sense of the term. Absolutely accessible and highly addictive, the book you hold in your hands is the most comprehensive manual to understand the body you inhabit – how it works, how it self-heals, and how it can "break down." Written with disarming humor and unparalleled intelligence by the greatest modern popularizer, The Body will captivate you with the incredible scientific data you will learn (your body made a million red blood cells while you read this text) and will help you gain a deeper understanding of the miracle of life in general, and of yourself in particular. We live our lives within this warm mass of flesh and yet take it completely for granted, writes Bryson. The Body will cure this indifference of yours with generous doses of astonishing information and irresistibly entertaining stories from the history of science. PRAISE FOR THE BOOK Delightful… Bryson is excellent at calming our fears and dispelling widespread myths. New York Times Book Review Having studied article after article, having talked to hundreds of doctors and biologists, and having read a library of books, Bryson, who seems to have thoroughly enjoyed himself along the way, offers us a list of wonders, a journey into a realm that the human eye cannot comprehend. Cheerful prose that sweeps you along, well-tuned narration interspersed with jokes, unknown details, and biographical digressions… culminating in the ultimate recipe for a better life: eat a little less, exercise a little more. Guardian