Yes, it crosses all of our minds from time to time, but don't we really try to avoid it's overall conversation? Don't we try and focus on living each day, shifting our attention away from the inevitable?
For me, I try and ignore the thought of death throughout my waking hours ~ as best as I can.
So, when a friend of mine suggested that I read a book about human cadavers ~ that's three-hundred pages of non-fiction about corpses, dissection and possible mutilation ~ I was quite weary of the commitment. After all, my nightmares are filled with blood and torture and revulsion. So why would I willingly invest the rest of my day's energy into this macabre world?
Bottom line, my friend has never steered me wrong on his book suggestions, not even once. (Thanks, Travis.) So, with hidden frustration, I agreed to take a look at it and even though I procrastinated for about a month or two, once I began to read it I could not stop. Once again, he was right.
The book I'm talking about is called Stiff and is written by Mary Roach. Perhaps you have already read it or heard of it as it was a New York Times Bestseller in its day. And while the book is somewhat dated, the information and the escape it provides is timeless. It is clever, dark and comical. It is, at times, unnerving and morbid and downright frightening, but it will change you. And isn't that what reading is all about?
This book takes you behind the scenes and into laboratories, hospitals, mortuaries, crematoriums, and the darkest of basements.
It will have you laughing and crying and cringing. It will have you questioning everything about life and death, religion and science, the here and now and the hereafter. It will force you to recognize the fragility of life and the strange hilarity of death. Roach is an amazing author and the book is fascinating. If you haven't yet, check it out. It just may change your
And let me know what you think.
Post a comment below and share your thoughts.
No comments:
Post a Comment