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

Shields' writing style is fragmented, dabbling freely from one subject to another, never exploring anything in depth. He writes of various declines in chemical, biological and physical bodily functions in rapid fire format, and quickly connects some of these to his and his father's condition in the past and present. I don't imagine anyone would consider a book with such a long and half-hearted title as serious scientific work. So if you choose to read this book, you will probably look past the lack of depth.

I suppose it's pointless to mention the author portrays a cynical view of aging, e.g. the brain of a 90 year old is as small as a 3 year old's. Shields neglects to mention that a 3 year old's brain is 88% of an adult size brain at its peak (19-21 years). So a 90 year old is not much worse off than his/her peak brain size as a young adult.

At times, it felt as if Shields is the kind of person who would be thrown out of a mental hospital for depressing the other patients. In the end, I considered this book to be a fun and informative read with some material that is better forgotten.

This book, as some folks have already mentioned here is a random collection of author's personal life anecdotes and incidents. I don't think the title and content of this book match. I was expecting more in-depth views on living life and hoping to expand my horizon about life in general but this book won't do that - it seems shallow and meaningless.

"The thing about life"... captured my imagination. The book is well crafted, creative, entertaining and engrossing. David Shields shares with us the story of aging in his own family interlaced with how society has viewed the topic through history.
It is a thought provoking tale.
Aging is the big elephant in the room, or not...
No matter how old you are, find some time in your busy life and read this book. Good books make us pause to think. This is one of them.

"The Thing About Life..." offers a myriad of eclectic facts on the physiology of aging, the commentary of luminaries from antiquity to the modern era, and advice from longevity pundits, all intertwined with biographical material of the author and his "survival machine" 97 year-old father.

I found myself depressed and even panic-stricken when learning about how my organs, sensations and cognitive functions are withering away, even as I write this. Shields pulls no punches, but his stoic nonchalant Mark Twain-esque presentation tempers the desperation. As an atheist he offers no long-term hope, but he's great for the short-term laugh.

The quotes on aging and dying are abundant. From the laugh-out-loud Woody Allen - "I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen, I want to live on in my apartment" - to the sublime da Vinci - "Here I thought that I was learning how to live, while I have in reality been learning how to die" - to the retrospective Neil Young - "When you're in your twenties, you and your world are the biggest thing. Now I realize I am a leaf floating along on top of some river". There is even a whole chapter of famous last words. And also there's the occasional tripe, such as Shields' recitation of what happens to be on every TV channel one night.

Some readers might not care for the pithy miscellany on aging mashed up with the unstructured stream-of-consciousness memoirs, but middle-aged men will probably take to it - the sobering content may be best presented (or rather, diluted) in this fashion. Like Saroyan, I have always logically known the Grim Reaper takes all men, but somewhere deep inside I too always felt he'd make an exception in my case.

The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead
I turned 35 this year, and I am suddenly very aware of my aging. It's not the physical changes in themselves that bother me so much, it's realizing that they are the warning signs of my "imminent" death. The Thing About Life has been quite a cathartic confrontation for me. The statistics of how our bodies atrophy were penetrating and persistent. I was seeing my body turning into ashes as I read the chapters and I didn't want that! The rawness of Shields' writing, his laugh out-loud anecdotes, and the hope Shields' father was giving me, as the exception to all the statistics, made all the cold hard facts disappear. As he kept forcing me to stare death in the face, suddenly what had been terrifying and uncomfortable wasn't so much anymore. He turned death into a well known friend (well, one that you'd like to keep at a distance). I couldn't put the book down. Shields has such an ability to laugh at himself. His boldness and freedom in the way he exposes himself takes you on a journey as if you where under his skin. And you love the ride. I came out the other end feeling like the weight of death had been lifted off my back, with an acceptance of the bitter-sweet reality of being alive, and the feeling of not wanting to waste another second.