I AM JOE'S. . .I AM JANE'S. . .

. . .nervous system, sensory organs, glands, digestive system; . . .womb, ovary, breast. . .and so on throughout this anatomical Baedeker where your guides are anthropomorphic innards with a self-righteous and curmudgeonly air of pedantry. Written in lowest-common-denominator English (this series drew four million requests for reprints when it ran in Reader's Digest), it's a general guide to health and physiological trivia that nonetheless seems completely up to date -- apparently some forty physicians, surgeons and research men collaborated with Ratcliff. Joe, Mr. Average American, is a 47-year-old ""successful businessman-type"" who is prone to cancer, obesity, nervous disorders and doesn't get enough exercise. His organs typically demand more appreciation for their marvelous complexity, more gratitude for their round-the-clock reliability and swear wrath and vengeance if Joe doesn't shape up fast. With friends like that, no wonder Joe's anxiety-ridden and stressful. The prose sinks to such lows as this lesson from the bloodstream: ""I am also a garbage man and delivery boy with 60 trillion customers. . ."" A poor man's Lives of a Cell, a layman's Gray, and don't forget that readability factor.