Don't Die Young
by Dr Alice Roberts

Release Date: 3rd Mar 2008
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN: 978 0 7475 9280 8
RRP: £12.99

Average Customer Rating:

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I would make this mandatory reading for those studying Biology

Don’t Die Young is essentially a biology lesson with some handy tips for improving your bodily functions as well as perhaps, if you’re lucky, preventing any nasties from wrecking havoc on your unsuspecting self. All said, I had prepared myself to feel nonplussed by yet another medical gimmicky book. The fact that it accompanied a BBC series did little to alleviate that concern, although they do occasionally get the balance right.

In truth, I needn’t have worried. Instead of a stodgy, contrite and overbearing tone, I was surprised at how remarkably readable this book is. In fact, in my opinion, the information, diagrams, explanations and images alone make this book worth its weight in gold. Looking from an anatomist’s perspective, Dr Roberts introduces (or reviews) the various organs of the body, their functions, purpose and the how and the why’s of what they do. And haven’t we all, at some point, experienced that natural curiosity about our own bodies and wondered about the where, the how, then what and the why?

Don’t Die Young is miss-sold in my opinion, the tips are by-the-by, we’ve heard them all before, countless numbers of times. It is in the volume, quality and accessibility of the information that this book really shines. It is first and foremost a biology book. It could replace most textbooks in schools and children would perhaps actually form a bond with their own bodies, an understanding, an appreciation of all they do.

It is engrossing, occasionally squeamish and definitely compulsive reading of a quality that surely deserves to be in an educational curriculum. This is no tedious, dry textbook. Like entering Willy Wonker’s fantastically world, only instead of chocolate – you get tubes and veins and blood and you actually learn something.

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