The first 30 years should be spent living life, and the last 40 years should be spent understanding it.

The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead is David Shields' attempt to understand the smile on his 97-year-old father's face. Part memoir, part biology lesson, riddled with quotes and thoughts and the musings of other human beings who also had to grow up and die, Shields basically prepares for what's going to happen next. The effects of 70 years of gravity.

What are you doing nowadays?

I'm busy growing older.

This book simply asks that we pay attention. That we think about the inevitable. That we realize we're just animals roaming the earth for a brief time, and that all of life, essentially, is a failure in the end, and the thing to do is to get sport out of trying. Shields asks that we appreciate what we have now, at 25, at 35, at 65, and know that someday we won't have it anymore.