Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

So, it's been a little while since I posted, but I just got a new job! So get off my back about it, okay?

I just finished reading the book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Which was incredibly engrossing...until the last few chapters.

(Editor's note: Don't bother clicking to look inside cause it won't do anything and I don't want you to go insane!)

I had heard about this book from a couple different friends and I have been know to have a slightly higher than average interest in the macabre, so I decided to give it a try.

I fell in love with the first three quarters of the book. She describes (with plenty of kinda too gross detail) some of the places your body can be shipped to when you decide to donate to science. I honestly cannot decide if it made me want to donate more or less. It's kind of a hit or miss thing. You're either going to be donated to something for the greater good of humanity or you're going to be a refresher course for plastic surgeons.

The part I enjoyed the most about the book, which I think a lot of people thought was too textbooky, was the history of cadavers. What they used to do to them in medieval times and even further back. I had no idea how much "testing" they did to disprove the logic that guillotines were a more humane source of disposing of criminals. Or how tough it used to be to tell if someone was actually dead.

The last few chapters were kind of a snooze though. She sends you on a pointless chase to find out if a story of a restaurant using human meat is true. Her humor is a little annoying. It's like she has to end every chapter on a lighter note, so it feels a little forced. I enjoyed her effort though.

It also made me think about how superstitious we all are. We can't let go of the idea of souls and we have a need to preserve the human body even after the humanness of it is long gone.

Since a blog is obviously a binding and legal document (duh) I'm going on record as saying I want to be turned into fertilizer and used to plant a tree. She delves into this new form of burial in a later chapter and I think it's a great idea, although this book was written in 2003 and she totes it as the possible next big thing. It has not caught on like wild fire, obviously. I think it's economical and a great way to be remembered, unless my tree gets cut down for urban sprawl, but in that case I'll just haunt the Chipotle that is inevitably built. All in all, I give this book a B-.

Stay tuned cause I'm reading my first ever romance novel. And it is...interesting.