Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

I'm KCRW Santa Monica.

I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Today, I'm very happy to have us my guest, David Shields,

whose new book, The Thing About Life is That One Day You'll Be Dead.

Yes, that's right.

The Thing About Life is that One Day you'll be dead. Yes, that's right. The thing about life is that one day you'll

be dead, published by Alfred A. Knopf. Now, recently, I'm 55. I keep being surprised by the things

that no one told me about aging.

As far as I'm concerned, it's more mysterious and alarming and amazing than puberty.

And in puberty, I had parents, you know, who were kind of informing me every step of the way, if not cohorts,

who, you know, said scary and threatening things about some things that would be happening,

and I could, you know, not believe them usually. But now it's like I'm on the road all by myself. No one really warns you maybe because they want you to be surprised, although surprise is unpleasant.

So this book, the thing about life, is that one day you'll be dead, takes the occasion of

the author, David Shields's father, being 97 years old and a life-affirmer,

to tell us what happens as the father ages, as the author ages, to compare the father's exuberance

with the son's disclaimers?

And to, well, it's so orchestrated with stories, last words, bits of biological fact and

...