Adam Taor
9780691256788 / June 2025 / AUD$29.99, NZD$34.99
Ok, so I’m bending my own rule here and reviewing this before I’ve completely finished reading it, because this delicious little volume is absolutely worth savouring at leisure.
I’m underlining ‘little’ because this little jewel of a book is only about as big as my hand [and I don’t have big hands!] in gorgeous textured hardback – and filled with the most eccentric and eclectic details of the human anatomy in small bite-sized chunks.
I can’t say it any better than the blurb:
What distinguishes crocodile tears from yours?
What possessed Isaac Newton to stick a needle into his eye socket?
How does brain glue thwart self-improvement gurus?
Why did one of the world’s most influential surgeons steal a giant?
Providing insights into these and other curiosities, Taor illuminates the ingenuity, mystery, and eccentric history of your anatomy like never before.
Adam Taor prefaces his quirky facts with the explanation that he was conceived in a hospital, where both his parents were junior doctors, he grew up in one, he went to medical school, qualified as a doctor and has written about medical topics since. But not as you might expect from some dry, dull reference tome.
This is lively, witty, articulate and, at times, downright funny. If you have listened or read David Mitchell’s Unruly, for example, you will get a sense of the flavour of this. I don’t want to rush through it. I’ll be keeping it on my bedside table for quite some time for those moments when I want to dip in, and read another bizarre or unusual fact about my inner workings.
It also has seriously lovely detailed sketches from Nathalie Garcia and remarkably pretty endpapers composed of equally intricate sketches of human bits in pink.
I love it! Possibly my only slightly downwards point, and it’s not a criticism, is that being small, the font is equally so which is not so good at night with the bedside lamp. Sitting outside on a sunny day – not a problem!
It’s a pocket treasure and would make a really top-end unusual gift for someone who is interested in either anatomy or just quirky facts in general. It’s an easy 5 🧠🦴🩸👁️💀 rating for curious readers of all ages.
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