Everyone’s single most important possession is our body. If that is not in proper working order, then nothing else in life really matters. Nevertheless, most people have only a vague — and often erroneous — idea of how the body is structured and functions.The body is indeed complex, meaning that it is composed of numerous systems and subsystems. However, it is nowhere near as complicated as it is often presented.The key is to describe the body based on only a handful of fundamental principles, i.e. the “architectural plan” that underlies virtually everything it does. Once these principles are clearly understood (they are not difficult), the body’s apparently impenetrable systems and subsystems become almost self-evident.The Human Body: The Essential Ten Percent is specifically designed to help make the body’s “architectural plan” and fundamental principles stand out in sharp relief. For example, many books compare the body to a well-oiled machine. By contrast, The Human Body: The Essential Ten Percent compares it to a city. Why? “Today, most people live in cities and have an instinctive understanding of how a complex urban environment works. Moreover, comparing it to a city gives more realistic description of how the body actually works,” says author Philip Yaffe.The body is not composed of a respiratory system linked to a digestive system linked to a circulatory system linked to a urinary system, etc. Rather, all of its systems interact to achieve a single overriding objective: to ensure the proper functioning of each and every one of the body’s 100 trillion individual cells. Relating everything back to the individual cell makes the need for systems and their general structures blazing obvious.An unusual feature of The Human Body: The Essential Ten Percent is that it is purposely redundant.As any teacher knows, saying something once is tantamount to not saying it at all. Key ideas must be frequently repeated to be certain that they don’t get lost in the details. The reader will therefore see pieces of information repeated in many different places. This is to ensure that vital information is always available when and where the reader needs it. He won’t have to go looking for it on an earlier page in order to understand the page he is currently reading.To add some light relief, the book also contains a chapter on “Funny Facts about the Human Body” and “Quotations about the Body” from scientists, philosophers, poets, and even humorists.The Human Body: The Essential Ten Percent is part of the expanding “The Essential Ten Percent” series. The series was launched in 2011 on the premise that many self-instructional books fail to distinguish between:•Casual Users — those who need to understand and apply only the very basics of a subject.•Intensive Users — those who need to understand and apply virtually everything. As a result, most such books tend to make fundamentally simple ideas appear to be unnecessarily complex. And more complex ideas hopelessly impenetrable.Books in “The Essential Ten Percent Series” rigorously focus on the “casual user” to ensure that simple ideas remain simple and more complex ideas can be decomposed into simpler ones.The books in “The Essential Ten Percent” series (at February 2012) are:College-level Writing: The Essential Ten PercentPublic Speaking: The Essential Ten PercentThe Human Body: The Essential Ten PercentWord for Windows: The Essential Ten Percent