Gulp - Mary Roach

⭐ 9.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

Gulp is a non-fiction book about the digestive system, from the mouth/nose all the way to the other end. I definitely don't read a lot of science-related books, and highly doubted I'd be interested in this one. But it came highly recommended, and somehow the author made this really interesting. I listened to the audiobook, and found it really easy to understand, and even downright funny.

She focuses on one aspect of eating and the digestive system at a time, like saliva, stomach acid, or the rectum. She doesn't shy away from any taboo subjects and is very frank about them, but still able to acknowledge that she knows it's taboo. For each part of the system, she talks about interviews or experiments that people have done, or other journals, or scientists who for someone reason are super interested in the powers of saliva. She answers questions like, Why do we like crunchy food so much? Did Elvis really die of constipation? Why are prisoners so good at smuggling things through the rectum? So it's more like she's telling a story about that body part, and all of them were SO fascinating. Now I have so much random information I can show off in conversations!