For those of you that haven't or couldn't attend book club lately, we'll be publishing the previous months' discussion questions here. I hope eventually to post discussion questions for all of the books we've covered since I took over a couple of years ago and beyond, all the way to the beginning over a decade and a half ago. It will take a while. Until then, we will be posting discussion questions on a weekly basis. Here are the questions from November's title, The Body. We hope these questions spark discussions of your own.
The Body
by Bill Bryson
Summary:
A New York Times Bestseller
Bill Bryson, bestselling author of A Short History of Nearly Everything, takes us on a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body—with a new afterword for this edition.
Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body—how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Brysonesque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular.
As Bill Bryson writes, “We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted.” The Body will cure that indifference with generous doses of wondrous, compulsively readable facts and information. As addictive as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best, a must-read owner’s manual for every body.
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR:
THE WASHINGTON POST • FINANCIAL TIMES • THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS • BOOKPAGE • THE BOSTON GLOBE
Discussion Questions
Were you surprised by the myriad physical processes that your body performs as you go about your daily life? How about things like the number of oxygen molecules you breathe in and out every so many minutes … or those cute little mites that dine on your eyebrows? (Oh yum.)
If we're lucky enough, we take our bodies for granted. Has reading Bill Bryson's book opened your eyes to just how remarkable these large clusters of cells actually are, how well (for the most part) they perform their jobs?
(Follow-up to Question 2) Unfortunately, our bodies aren't always in good health, yet over the years science has developed treatments for disease and physical dysfunction. Sometimes they have been legendary cures, like Jonas Falk's vaccine for polio. Other times they have been the seemingly insignificant things like, say, the use of agar in petrie dishes. Talk about some of the unsung heroes—those who never became household names but whose work resulted in important discoveries.
What are some of the myths about health that Bryson says have been debunked by science. What surprised you: perhaps the information antioxidants or how often men think about sex?
What does Bryson have to say about the overuse of antibiotics? How have we gotten ourselves to the point where we find ourselves in a bacterial "arms race"? How do we win? Can we win?
Overall, what do you think of Bill Bryson's The Body? Do you feel informed, that you've learned something valuable after reading it? Is it engaging? Does it offer a good balance of science and technology with readable prose for the non-expert? Is it funny?
By the time antibiotics and vaccines became widely available, much or most of the decline in deaths from communicable diseases had already occurred. What do you see as the causes of this decline?
What are the three main theories of aging, and how do telomeres contribute to growing old.
What was a radical mastectomy, and what new theory about the spread of cancer caused it to be abandoned? Why would this new theory lead to such a change in practice?
What are two reasons why drug trials often fail to produce viable medicines? What solutions for each of these problems do you see?
What is the difference between a vaccine and an antibiotic? Why the radical differences?
Briefly describe two ways that bipedal locomotion can cause physiological problems in humans, and explain why those problems occur less often in four-legged animals.
What are the three most common causes of death today among the elderly in Western countries, and what steps can people take to reduce their exposure to these maladies?
Why does the throat cause humans to choke more than any other animal? What anatomical feature does this attribute of the throat protect, and why is that feature so important to humans?
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