The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (Audible Audio Edition) David Shields Peter Marinker Penguin Books Ltd Books
Download As PDF : The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (Audible Audio Edition) David Shields Peter Marinker Penguin Books Ltd Books
Mesmerized 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.
A New York Times Bestseller in 2008, The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead, is an insightful, honest and uplifting portrait of what it means to be human, and one day to die.
The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (Audible Audio Edition) David Shields Peter Marinker Penguin Books Ltd Books
I'm trying to determine why I found this book so fascinating. I think it has something to do with the rhythm. Shields offer us a series of snapshots--these being the many many factoids about our bodies--interspersed with the movies--these being the stories that he tells about himself and his father. This is his rhythm: snapshots, movies, snapshots, movies. I loved this interplay.Shields has a wickedy dry, and yet very empathetic sense of humor. He piles up the facts and tells us a few stories. If you can find the secret of life in all this, fine. If not, that's ok as well.
Shields isn't pretending to offer any answers. That's the point: life flowers and wilts. In a way it's noble, and in a way, ridiculous. Bittersweet--that's how I'd characterize this book. Resigned. And fun to read.
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The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (Audible Audio Edition) David Shields Peter Marinker Penguin Books Ltd Books Reviews
David Shields, a gifted writer, fills these pages with both general and personal information about what it means to be a human being. Statistics from the size of the human brain at birth to the difference in growth spurts between boys and girls are included. Did you know your IQ is highest between ages 18 and 25? An exhaustive yet highly readable array of fascinating anatomical facts and social observations make this an unusual collection of essays. It's by nature a memoir, (be prepared to read about a bad case of teenage acne, for example, and a consistent interspersion of "Hoop Dreams"), but the focus reaches beyond mere life stories and experiences, making the material relatable to anyone who breathes--and reads.
In his journey from Infancy and Childhood, through Adolescence, Adulthood and Middle Age and into Old Age and Death, Shields quotes a myriad of authors/philosophers/poets, including Woody Allen, Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Nietzsche, Dylan Thomas, Vladimir Nabokov, and Jerry Seinfeld, just to name a few. More than anyone else, he's most strongly influenced by his 97-year-old father, to whom the book is dedicated. He ends with "Notes for Eulogy for My Father," but really, the entire book plays out this dedication.
By the way, "David Shields is a great writer and a babe to boot." Even without hair.
Michele Cozzens, Author of A Line Between Friends and The Things I Wish I'd Said.
For me "The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead" is a difficult book to evaluate. Once I began reading it I wanted to finish it, but on the other hand, I kind of wish I had never started it.
The book is a compilation of David Shields' eclectic thoughts on living and dying. At times he is presenting his own thoughts and experiences and at other times he is reflecting on his father's life and experiences. This interaction often leads to some confusion as to who he is writing about. As a self-proclaimed New York Jew, Mr. Shields also presents certain aspects of life in a Mort Saul style where nothing is sacred (let it all hang-out), which at times is quite crass from my point of view.
The book is also crammed with quotes from various people, only a few of which I recognized. In addition, Shields fills the book with snippets of scientific facts about what the body goes through at various stages of development and aging. In the end, what the reader has is potpourri of information.
If you are looking for a read that will educate you on living and dying, I don't think this book will do it.
Author David Shields crossed the point in life where one begins to feel they will die. This is not merely acceptance of a fact. It's having the omnipresent awareness of the things that are changing to bring death closer. With this knowledge and feeling, there is no escape from seeking the meaning of one's life. Shields does this while holding nothing back from his audience including highly personal details. His style made me feel what he feels, and this in turn helped me to think similarly of my own life.
The author's obsession with death is revealed throughout the book. The interesting question is `Do atheists and theists view death in the same light?' If you read books by saints or religious people, you'll find that indeed they welcome death. Death to them is not an end but a beginning. At death, we are reunited with our loved ones. The world of the dead is another world where we are as much alive as in this world.
Throughout our body, since conception, a process of birth and death is taking place every second--new cells are born while old ones die. Our body is attuned to the constant bombardment of birth and death taking place, yet we--the part that is not the body (call it spirit or soul)--are not. Why? Why do some people welcome death while others shun away from it? Would we be scared of dying if there was no love in this world? These are actually very interesting questions to ponder.
A lot of the book was about the author's relationship with his father. I found some chapters slow. I wanted the author to go more into the core of life and death. Maybe I missed something. Maybe the author wanted us to learn about death through his relationship with his father. If he did, I missed the point. I also found too much personal information about the author and his family that distracted me from the essence of the book. For example, the author talks about his sex life, his girlfriend's herpes, and his acne during his youth. Was the book meant as a biography or a memoir?
I did like the scientific information included, such as the difference in size between a girl's and a boy's brain and the physiology of ageing.
Some interesting chapters in the book
Our birth is nothing but our death begun existence is warfare. Human beings have existed for 250,000 years; during that time, 90 billion individuals have lived and died.
Decline and fall All mammals age; the only animals that don't age are some of the more primitive ones sharks, alligators, Galapagos tortoises. Schopenhauer said, "Just as we know our walking to be only a constantly prevented falling, so is the life of our body only a constantly prevented dying, an ever-deferred death."
Life is that which gives meaning to life life is perfected by death.
How to live forever In ancient Greece, old men were advised to lie down with beautiful virgins.
Towards the end of the book you'll realize that we are not learning how to live, but how to die.
I'm trying to determine why I found this book so fascinating. I think it has something to do with the rhythm. Shields offer us a series of snapshots--these being the many many factoids about our bodies--interspersed with the movies--these being the stories that he tells about himself and his father. This is his rhythm snapshots, movies, snapshots, movies. I loved this interplay.
Shields has a wickedy dry, and yet very empathetic sense of humor. He piles up the facts and tells us a few stories. If you can find the secret of life in all this, fine. If not, that's ok as well.
Shields isn't pretending to offer any answers. That's the point life flowers and wilts. In a way it's noble, and in a way, ridiculous. Bittersweet--that's how I'd characterize this book. Resigned. And fun to read.
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