The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead

"It kind of puts you in that river that sweeps you toward the end. It gets you thinking of all the things that can go wrong and lead to the stopping of your heart.

That said, there are plenty of interesting facts on every page. All this with a twist of sad humor."
~ Written on 2008-09-28

"Rarely do I not finish a book. I made an exception in this book. I was expecting a book of soulful insight and instead found a book of disjointed information presented in an awkward way. The further I read, the greater my sense that this book was not going anywhere. Finally, I stopped mid-chapter. Where was this author's editor?"
~ Written on 2008-07-30

"I found this book to drag on and on and provide useless information. Yes the author did do a lot of research in finding the facts but the book itself was a huge let-down. It is about a young man and his stages of life, but chooses very bad stories that have facts in them. It goes back and forth about his relationship of his dad. It also tells many stores that the reader does not want to know. (i was thinking T.M.I. a few times) Im very mad at myself for buying it in a book store and spending $23 on it. It was a waste of money and of my time. I normally never stop reading a book unless im done with it. Although for this book, about 3/4 of the way through i really couldnt take it anymore and stopped reading it. It was that bad. Basically, it is a book about facts listed off in paragraphs. I saw no "inspirational messages" and it did not get me to look at life in a different way like all the reviews on the back had said. Dont waste ur time reading this!"
~ Written on 2008-06-22

"(Thank goodness!)

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 consists of reflections on his own life and, particularly, the life of his 97-year old father.

Not everyone will find this a novel revelation (Hey - people age and die! Who knew???!) or a fascinating story.

The chapters offering straight biological facts and others that consist of a multipage succession of quotations seem like "filler," a data vomit.

"The Thing About Life" stops just short of being a complete waste of time. Not a terrible book, but bordering on the lame-oh...Hence the three-star rating.
"
~ Written on 2008-06-08

"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."
~ Written on 2008-05-26