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Welcome to The Book Club! It’s a space where I’ll be documenting what I’ve read recently and any great books I’d recommend. Hopefully, you’ll discover your next read here! Click the titles to grab your own copy.
Being Mortal
In the past few decades, medical science has rendered obsolete centuries of experience, tradition, and language about our mortality and created a new difficulty for mankind: how to die.
If you have people in your life that you care about – this book is for you. These people will one day grow old. You will one day grow old. Being Mortal deals with the heart-wrenching topic of ageing and losing loved ones, and outlines what to think about in their final days.
It explores our attitude towards the role of medical science and the reality of its ability to prolonging life. Although with medical developments, we may hope to live forever, we’re still a long way off.
As a doctor, Atul Gawande is no stranger to the issue of death but after losing his father to cancer he started looking deeply into end-of-life care and the issue of dying. This book is a distillation of his research.
He shows that there is more to life than just living longer. We need to know what questions to ask. What to consider when dealing with those that are ageing. Learning how to let go. This book will shift your perspective on all of that. It’s a seriously eye-opening read.
Man’s Search for Meaning
This is a very short read but a truly hard-hitting one. Viktor Frankl recounts his time in concentration camps during World War II and the horrors that he and his comrades endured.
He links what he witnessed in the camps – how men could and could not find the will to survive in the face of unimaginable suffering and ties it to Logotherapy, a theory he founded based on the premise that humans are primarily motivated by the search for meaning in their lives.
I would absolutely recommend this to everyone. It not only puts your life into perspective but presents an interesting framework for finding purpose, especially in these testing times.
