Discoveries: Images of the Body

I picked this up at a museum gift shop on a whim, but this turned out to be one of the best books I've read this year! It's a small book (postcard-sized), 5 chapters about the human body, yet it seems to summarize the whole history of the way we have depicted our bodies, covering every topic from art and mythology to medicine, crime and sex. Chapter 4 is "Automated Bodies," which covers such topics as the precursors to robots in the human imagination--did you know Descartes designed and built an android in the early 1600s? How cool is that? This book is stuffed with photos and illustrations. It's jam-packed with sidebars on just about every page exploring side topics like the work of Muybridge, and a 1770s "speaking machine," and anatomical paintings, and a famous picture of Grace Jones.Without ever being too academic, this book stimulates you with fascinating philosophical ideas. It's so much fun to read--I can't recommend this highly enough, given the price.