Friday, February 8, 2013

How We Die

It was so nice to wind down with a damn good book. I read How We Die over my Xmas break. I found the title from a blog post named, "Have you ever fallen for someone's ...bookcase" from my favorite blog, Cup of Jo.

Its a beautifully written but insanely detailed account of how people die - heart disease, stroke, cancer, "old-age,", Alzheimer's, accidents, euthanasia...and more from the eyes of a doctor. He describes the disease in a both scientific but poetic way that you can visualize what's happening to the person. In class, I learn and memorize about different pathologies and treatments for patients. But it feels so foreign and distant. The book brings together all the knowledge that you have learned over the years in school, from the news, from your parents/grandparents, your friends and makes sense of it by putting the information in the context of individual stories.

My bro says I'm kinda morbid that I want to read a book about death over Xmas. I think the book demystifies death and I'm happy to have read it. And its a great adjunct to classes like pulmonary or cardiac PT.

Picture from Goodreads.

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