<![CDATA[The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead]]>

false <![CDATA[The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead]]> 1999657 5 “David Shields has accomplished something here so pure and wide in its implications that I almost think of it as a secular, unsentimental Kahlil Gibran: a textbook for the acceptance of our fate on earth.” —Jonathan Lethem Mesmerized—at times unnerved—by his ninety-seven-year-old father’s nearly superhuman vitality and optimism, David Shields undertakes an investigation of the human physical condition. The result is this exhilarating book: both a personal meditation on mortality and an exploration of flesh-and-blood existence from crib to oblivion—an exploration that paradoxically prompts a renewed and profound appreciation of life. Shields begins with the facts of birth and childhood, expertly weaving in anecdotal information about himself and his father. As the book proceeds through adolescence, middle age, old age, he juxtaposes biological details with bits of philosophical speculation, cultural history and criticism, and quotations from a wide range of writers and thinkers—from Lucretius to Woody Allen—yielding a magical whole: the universal story of our bodily being, a tender and often hilarious portrait of one family. A book of extraordinary depth and resonance, The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead will move readers to contemplate the brevity and radiance of their own sojourn on earth and challenge them to rearrange their thinking in unexpected and crucial ways. 2003474 5 2 2008 The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead total:388|5:49|4:106|3:144|2:68|1:21| 388 1258 902 125 5 3 false false Mon Mar 31 10:57:49 -0700 2008 Mon May 19 07:44:40 -0700 2008
The book is very much homage to the author’s once spirited, indefatiga...more...]]> 2 2 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 19:51:46 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 19:53:06 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Feb 18 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 18 13:55:33 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 18 14:33:53 -0800 2008
the book has so many interesting facts and quotes that i ended up dogearing almost the entire book, so i'll just include the prologue:
...more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 02 23:18:34 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 02 23:20:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Sun Jun 08 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 29 12:22:27 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 08 15:45:52 -0700 2008
A near-terminal case.

Author David Shields runs this book along parallel and often intersecting tracks. One is a litany of facts regarding the birth, maturation and aging process. The other consis...more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Dec 29 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 24 07:49:29 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 16:50:51 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 15 08:54:27 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 09:16:05 -0700 2009
The book is half-memoir and half meditation on de...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jan 31 18:56:04 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 18:56:22 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed May 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 14:14:45 -0700 2009 Thu May 21 00:55:19 -0700 2009 So here I am, facing down 40 and feeling better physically and emotionally than I have in several years. The last thing I needed was to read this book, which I picked up because it has been designated as assigned reading for all first-year undergraduates at my school.

The Thing About Life is ca...

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The knowledge that death is not so far away, that my mind and emotions and vitality will soon disappear like a puff of smoke, has the effect of making earthly affairs seem unimportant and human beings more and mo...more...]]> 1 1 false false Wed Jul 30 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 07 16:03:39 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 08 07:29:41 -0700 2008
At first I w...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 20:27:37 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 07:33:29 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jan 16 13:25:32 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 12:08:17 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 13:25:32 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Fri Dec 19 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 19 10:50:45 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 19 11:02:39 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Apr 13 15:26:01 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 13 15:27:07 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri May 15 11:32:06 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 11:35:09 -0700 2009
--Nearly 60 percent of the hearing loss in people over the age of 65 is due to a build up of wax in their ears.
--You skin begins to lose its elasticity around 4...more...]]> 1 0 false false Sun Feb 08 22:54:19 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 19 21:17:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Feb 04 15:54:56 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 16:09:11 -0800 2009 No...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1999657