The Body by Bill Bryson
Published 2019 · 130,000 words · about 9 hours at an average pace · Nonfiction, Science & Nature
How hard is The Body to read?
The Body scores 17 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 30 out of 100
- Scientific terms explained with Bryson's characteristic clarity.
- Sentence structure: 25 out of 100
- Abstraction: 25 out of 100
- Biological concepts made concrete through vivid comparisons.
- Information density: 50 out of 100
- Packed with facts, but delivered entertainingly.
- Narrative indirection: 80 out of 100
- Systematic organ-by-organ tour.
- Symbolic density: 80 out of 100
- Factual survey. Minimal symbolism.
- Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
- Bryson's gentle humor throughout.
- Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
- Each chapter completes its subject.
- Structural complexity: 20 out of 100
- Twenty-three chapters, each covering a body system.
How The Body is regarded
The Body holds a literary regard score of 40 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.