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    The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead
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    The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead
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    The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead
    Audiobook6 hours

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

    Written by David Shields

    Narrated by Don Leslie

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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 audiobook: 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.

    An audiobook of extraordinary depth and resonance, The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead will move listeners to contemplate the brevity and radiance of their own sojourn on earth and challenge them to rearrange their thinking in unexpected and crucial ways.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 5, 2008
    ISBN9780739359297
    Unavailable
    The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead
    Author

    David Shields

    David Shields is the author of fifteen books, including the New York Times bestseller The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead; Reality Hunger, named one of the best books of 2010 by more than thirty publications; and Black Planet, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His work has been translated into twenty languages.

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

    3.5/5

    111 ratings15 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Shields uses facts and statistics to distance himself from the emotions he feels about his father. Interspersed stories about their lives show the competitiveness he feels toward him. He also tries to show how closely sex and death are tied together.Not a very rewarding read.
    • 4/5
      This is an unusual book. The author combines myriads of statistics related to human physiological development with reminiscences and current stories about his father. He even includes some stories about his daughter in the first part of the book.

      Frankly, its a bit of a mishmash. However, he makes it work with the his (I assume) very honest and personal reflections about his father.
    • 3/5
      The thing about this book is that sometimes it annoys. I actually decided to stop reading it when I was halfway through. But the other thing about this book is that often it's very interesting. Probably it's about half and half, and the half you like better (or the half you'll find annoying) will depend on what kind of writing you respond to.

      There are roughly three modes of discourse in the book: the personal/family memoir, the straight scientific fact, and the liberal heaping doses of quotations from others.

      The aspects of personal memoir are generally rather interesting. Shields's discussion of life as a quick progression toward sexual maturity and a long, long decline toward death is framed by a kind of sketchy dual biography of himself and his father. It's easy to see why he is fixated on his father, who is 97 at the time of the book's writing. He's a colorful guy, personable, quick with a story, and unrelenting in his desire to live as long as possible.

      The scientific facts are often interesting, sometimes depressing in their bare expression of our biological condition. I often found these quite thought-provoking, although at times they provoked thoughts that preferred not to be disturbed. Anyone who is distinctly uncomfortable with contemplating his or her own mortality is hereby warned not to pick up this book. At other times, the litany of facts about the human body, how it matures, perpetuates its genetic code, and eventually breaks down feel too unleavened by some other voice. Fact after fact after fact can weigh on the reader, and after a while I felt justified in skimming some portions.

      Finally, the cascade of quotes often have the same effect the scientific facts have. In fact, this is the least engaging aspect of the book. While Shields has plucked many excellent quotes and arranged them in a kind of conversation among themselves at times, this method felt unmediated by an authorial presence at times. Given that his more recent book, Reality Hunger, plays up this mode, it's clear he intended something like this. Perhaps in time this will seem brilliant. For now, given that I'm still very much attached to the kinds of storytelling traditions that Shields seems to find outmoded and restricting, this is where we part ways. I more often skimmed the quotes than I did the science, because, while there is a similar sense in both modes of reading an unmediated recitation of someone else's words, science has a tendency toward a direct, somewhat generic tone. I feel less assaulted by an array of literary "talking heads" when Shields layers on the facts, even if a glance at the source material would suggest he's operating at the same scant level of intervention in both cases.

      Having been as annoyed as I've been with this book, I can't give it a particularly high rating. But since I found it compelling enough to come back to it even after quitting it, I can't give it a particularly low rating. Readers seem very much split on this one, either loving it or hating it. I did both in turn, so I'll land in the middle and hope that suggests both the worthwhile benefits of the book and the drawback inherent in its idiosyncratic execution. And in case you're on the fence, I'll reiterate the conclusion that's already featured prominently in the title: Everybody dies, even you.
    • 2/5

      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 categorized by the publisher as a biography. As a biography, the book succeeds in fits and starts, with tenderly rendered passages about the author's childhood, and especially about his father, an interesting and vividly drawn character, someone I liked learning about.


      However, Shields has inserted these biographical passages into a repetitive, finger-wagging meditation on death. It goes something like this:


      You're going to die: yes, you. By the way, my father has remained vital well into his nineties. He's an interesting guy -- here's a tidbit about him. Oh, and you're going to die, and here are some details about how you and I will physically deteriorate as we age. Here are some early sexual experiences that I remember. Did you know that once we've reproduced, nature is done with us and it's time for us to die? Here's a story of my father, striving for connection with others and trying to give his life meaning. But the thing is, we all fail in the end because we DIE. And before that we'll get sick, feeble and ugly. Wanna hear some quotes from famous people about death?

      Here's a sentence from this book that sums it up for me: "You find this information soul-killing; I find it thrilling, liberating."


      Well, yes, I happen to know that one day I will die. And on days when I have some perspective on things, that knowledge can remind me to appreciate life, not take the small stuff too seriously, and not take my days on earth for granted.


      But -- BUT: I'd rather focus on the living of my life than on the dying of my life. Perhaps this book was therapeutic for the author as he wrote it, but it was a lousy experience for me as a reader. Reading this book made me feel like I'd been listening to hour upon hour of well-crafted, well-played dirges. I'd rather have done something else with those bits of my limited time on earth. And I am glad that I wasn't asked to read this as a college freshman, when I was rightfully concerned with living my young, hopeful life, and didn't require that this hope be framed within extended meditations on my eventual decline and demise.

    • 5/5
      When people ask me, “What do people mean when they talk about personal essay?” I can do no better than refer them to this book.David Shields combines info about the gradual decline and decay of the body with stories about his own life at fifty-one and stories about the life of his father, now 97. Absolutely mesmerizing. I loved this book.
    • 4/5
      I couldn't figure out what this was: memoir? biology lesson? All the same, it was grandly entertaining. Shields' love for his father is quite evident, and his stories and memories weave an interesting tangle in this book. On the other hand, Shields spends a great deal of time talking about mammalian biology, sex, attraction, procreation, and, well, death. A study of the human mindset of death, and our complete inability to embrace aging, if you will. I enjoyed reading this book.
    • 4/5
      Shields takes us through the stages of life, from birth to death (with a special emphasis on death), throwing out facts and statistics about human biology and quotations from everyone from Shakespeare to Seinfeld, interspersing them with reminiscences from his own life and thoughts about his 97-year-old father, with whom he has a complicated relationship. It's an odd book, and it should come across as a self-indulgent mishmash, but it's strangely compelling, and the whole is somehow more profound than the sum of its parts.
    • 5/5
      "The Thing about life is that one Day You'll be Dead" is the book by David Shields, the balding, middle aged writer who has pain in several parts of his body and is coming face to face with the one thing every man, woman and child on the planet shares, death. No matter how rich, or how poor, how gorgeous or how hideous, we all die. It is just the natural way of things. The circle of life is the inevitability that everyone must come to terms with. Some of us gracefully and some of us kicking and screaming until the bitter end.First, let me say, I read this book in three days. While some of you might do this kind of thing on a regular basis, it is no longer the norm for me. With kids, work, my personal writing, etc. reading is a luxury that has eluded my grasp more times than not the past few months. In this book, I thoroughly enjoyed the way David wove factual anatomical data with his own personal experiences and intertwined a few celebrity quotations in the mix so much I couldn’t put it down. It is both educational as it is biographical, which was a unique perspective when dealing with the rise and fall of the human species.David, as we all are is different from his father and at the same time very similar. His father lived to be 105 years old, was obsessed with his physical well being and spent his entire life dealing with depression. Both father and son are, or were, keenly focused on sports and as with any hobby that a person enjoys it at times gives you an emotional outlet and connection you are not always expecting. It always seems the stubborn crotchety people are the ones who find a way to make it well into their old age, just by their refusal to give in or step aside.I will say the factual tidbits, (on one occasion there were two pages listing every channel and what was on TV at the time) lost me as pointless. It was a little overdone. The celebrity quotes got to be a little monotonous as well on occasion, but the majority of the novel had me mesmerized by its personal feel even while letting me know how eating a hamburger and fries was killing off all my vital organs. While it might be too late for me to make a large impact on my personal longevity I still enjoyed the book immensely.If you happen to be somebody obsessed with death, this book is a must read. If you are a person obsessed with life then I would say ditto. If you are just the average Joe I still think you will find it engaging and very entertaining as well as enlightening. For all of us who fell asleep in health class as a teenager you might be surprised how many things you missed. The next time you order that brownie and ice cream for dessert keep in mind how many hours of your life you are sacrificing for that enjoyment. Then again, you might get hit by a bus on the way home so who really cares.Great book and I would highly recommend it.
    • 3/5
      Amazing book about the process of death, or living. Whoever recommended this to me, thank you!
    • 3/5
      Interesting book that juxtaposes life events (an "ordinary" man and his aging dad) with science. What does get a little tiresome are the ongoing references to David Shield's own athletic prowess - it actually detracted from the essence of the story. So while this had an opportunity to be a really insightful book it is misses the opportunity to really connect with the reader in a lasting way. Good library read but you won't need more than 2-3 days
    • 1/5
      It was an okay-ish book. All in all, it seemed like a way to btch and make money at the same time. There was some insight, but more whining. Some information, more whining. A few statistics, more whining. It got a little bit tedious after the first four chapters. 1 out of 5 reasons I never accept the main selections from my book clubs.
    • 5/5
      I don't know how David Shields puts up with his dad, but I do know this: his dad is related to my boyfriend. They're both exasperating. Thank you, David, for the field guide -- it helps tremendously.
    • 4/5
      Lovely weave of the author's father's overwhelming presence and his inevitable decline, wedded to facts and figures about the physical human condition. I know it sounds hokey, but really it is greatly tempered by the science. The beach was a lovely location for reading this one- it forced me to stare at waves and contemplate existence more than once. A book that makes an American style "vacation" actually feel like a vacation. Refreshing.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book. As a 55 year old man, it provided me an opportunity to reminisce about my youth and look ahead (gulp) as to what I can expect in the near future. It was a very easy read. I liked the quotes and anecedotes regarding how we age.
    • 3/5
      As I have had a lifelong curiosity about mortality, I thought this book would be an excellent match for my interests. It was compelling in parts to read about Shields' youth and his father's tenaciousness, but overall the effect is of a very elaborate PowerPoint presentation: I've walked away with facts, but no theme.