The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (Vintage) by David Shields (ISBN:0307387968)

English (US)

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		The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (Vintage)
	
				(4 reviews)			
(40 Readers)

			David Shields		
	
New York Times bestseller Best Nonfiction Book of the Year, TimeOut Chicago Chosen by Artforum as one of the 25 best books of the year Best Reads of...more
 New York Times bestseller Best Nonfiction Book of the Year, TimeOut Chicago Chosen by Artforum as one of the 25 best books of the year Best Reads of 2008, Salon Chosen as one of the twenty best nonfiction books of 2008, Seattle Times Chosen by Amazon as one of its Significant Seven for February 2008 and one of the 50 best books of the year Powell's Books New Favorite, Staff Pick BookSense Selection Finalist for the Washington State Book Award, 2009Mesmerized and somewhat unnerved by his 97-year-old father's vitality and optimism, David Shields undertakes an original investigation of our flesh-and-blood existence, our mortal being. Weaving together personal anecdote, biological fact, philosophical doubt, cultural criticism, and the wisdom of an eclectic range of writers and thinkers--from Lucretius to Woody Allen--Shields expertly renders both a hilarious family portrait and a truly resonant meditation on mortality. The Thing About Life provokes us to contemplate the brevity and radiance of our own sojourn on earth and challenges us to rearrange our thinking in crucial and unexpected ways.   less

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Chock-full of fascinating - and depressing - information: the differences between how men & women develop & age, what happens to our body throughout various life stages, how humans differ from other species, plus myriad quotations from people of various ages, throughout the ages, regarding aging - you get the idea.
As the title indicates, the book is all about life, and the inevitability of death...more
 Chock-full of fascinating - and depressing - information: the differences between how men & women develop & age, what happens to our body throughout various life stages, how humans differ from other species, plus myriad quotations from people of various ages, throughout the ages, regarding aging - you get the idea.
As the title indicates, the book is all about life, and the inevitability of death - no matter who you are, how well you take care of yourself, etc. If you are over the age of 25 when you read this, you will become painfully aware of mortality's fleeting nature!   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
This book should be subtitled "why you should go ahead and kill yourself by the time you're 50, unless you're the author's father."  It's a collection of statistics of what exactly falls apart (and how it falls apart) in the human body as we age.  Shields blends these statistics and research with the story of his father, who is 97 and defies all of the...more
 This book should be subtitled "why you should go ahead and kill yourself by the time you're 50, unless you're the author's father."  It's a collection of statistics of what exactly falls apart (and how it falls apart) in the human body as we age.  Shields blends these statistics and research with the story of his father, who is 97 and defies all of the "average" things that go wrong with the body.  It was interesting, though depressing.  Sometimes the litany of statistics went on a bit too long, but otherwise it was good.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Although I enjoyed this book, I felt that the author was disrespectful to his father for writing and publishing this while his father was still alive.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
This book is unconventional. David Shields wrote of his experience as a mortal in the progression of life; human limitations and physical weaknesses. He told us stories about his (living) father, and the admiration and despise he had for the old man’s vitality and recklessness. Surprisingly, for many of the passages, you would find nothing but pileups of science or social tidbits and...more
 This book is unconventional. David Shields wrote of his experience as a mortal in the progression of life; human limitations and physical weaknesses. He told us stories about his (living) father, and the admiration and despise he had for the old man’s vitality and recklessness. Surprisingly, for many of the passages, you would find nothing but pileups of science or social tidbits and anecdotes chained together, working as explicit description of human life solely as a process of assimilation and degeneration of biological materials. “The Thing About Life” forces you to face death head on. To talk about death may be grim, but to be exposed to blunt depiction of human mortality could be more than brutal. Definitely not for the weak hearted.

This book did stunt me a fair bit, and led me back into serious thoughts. But I think it is good to be reminded that all human lives will one day end, so we can have the courage to treasure life when we are living and make the best out of this journey to make positive differences.   hide

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