# Good books about death **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2008, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804 "2008-05-19T02:02:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![partlycloudy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/partlycloudy/32/3114_2.png) [@partlycloudy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partlycloudy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/1 "2008-05-19T02:02:00Z")
There you have it, morbid though it may be, I’m looking for some good books about death and dying, particularly as viewed by Western cultures. I’ve got “Stiff” (by Mary Roach) and “The American Way of Death Revisited” (Jessica Mitford) - the latter of which I haven’t read yet. Just curious if anyone else has any suggestions. Just looking for some insightful observations on why we “westerners” view death the way we do, how it kinda freaks everyone out, etc… -L ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/2 "2008-05-19T02:12:12Z")
The ground-breaking book in the field was ‘On Death and Dying’ by [Elizabeth Kubler-Ross](http://www.elisabethkublerross.com/) and that site has links to many other interesting books on the subject of Thanatology. A fantastic book on the physiological processes of death is [‘How we Die’](http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Die-Reflections-Chapter/dp/0679742441) by Sherwin Newland. Thorough, informative and not for hypochondriacs under any circumstances. Seriously, worse than the time I tried to read ‘The Shining’ while I was alone for a week in an isolated ranch house in a snowstorm. ---
**Author:** ![HongKongFooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/3 "2008-05-19T02:12:53Z")
I think you’d like [_How We Die_](http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Die-Reflections-Chapter/dp/0679742441) by Sherwin Nuland, a Yale physician IIRC. It’s a frank discussion of what happens to a person physically as they die. It’s well-written and Dr. Nuland offers a lot of personal interpretation throughout, again IIRC it’s been quite a while since I’ve read it. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveroptic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiveroptic/32/8257_2.png) [@Fiveroptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveroptic)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/4 "2008-05-19T02:18:52Z")
I read [Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying](http://www.amazon.com/Final-Gifts-Understanding-Awareness-Communications/dp/0553378767/ref=pd_sim_b_img_3/103-8823974-3355822) a few years back because it happened to be on the shelf and I was in desperate need of reading material. (Yeah okay, I was in rehab at the time.) It turned out to be very engrossing and became quite relevant to me a few months later when my mother died. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/5 "2008-05-19T02:49:11Z")
[QUOTE=LoganDear] There you have it, morbid though it may be, I’m looking for some good books about death and dying, particularly as viewed by Western cultures. [/QUOTE] I’ve sorta liked the odd books on it: you might wanna check out: [The Big Book of Death](http://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Death-Factoid-Books/dp/1563891662) (it’s a comic book, with each story/superstition/etc done by various artists but its highly entertaining). ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/6 "2008-05-19T02:58:53Z")
Not quite what you’re looking for but I found \*A Lesson Before Dying \* to be quite a good read. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/7 "2008-05-19T06:19:38Z")
May not be what you’re looking for exactly, but [Dead Men Do Tell Tales](http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Men-Tell-Tales-Anthropologist/dp/0385479689), a book by a forensic anthropologist, is one I remember being glued to when I read it about 10 years ago. Several of [Michael Shermer’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Shermer) books (_Why People Believe Weird Things_ being his bestseller) address the role of the fear of death in belief systems. While the entire book is not about death, Carl Sagan’s [Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life & Death in a New Millennium](http://www.amazon.com/Billions-Thoughts-Death-Brink-Millennium/dp/0345379187/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211177837&sr=1-1), was an assemblage of his essays for Parade and other magazines over a period of years _but_ included a preface and a final essay written while he knew he was dying of myelodysplasia (a blood marrow disease). In it he (and in a posthumous conclusion his widow Ann Druyan) discusses accepting his own mortality, and how it does not affect his religious views (or lack of). ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/8 "2008-05-19T12:18:06Z")
Sort of on the topic, [Final Exits](http://www.amazon.com/Final-Exits-Illustrated-Encyclopedia-How/dp/0060817410/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211199293&sr=8-4) a cataloging of all the different ways to die. Great bathroom read. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/9 "2008-05-19T12:19:08Z")
Robert Fulghum’s From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives has a section on death that is excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/10 "2008-05-19T14:52:29Z")
[Being Dead](http://www.amazon.com/Being-Dead-Novel-Jim-Crace/dp/0312275420) is supposed to be very good - I haven’t yet got around to reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/11 "2008-05-19T16:23:50Z")
_Buried Alive_ by Jan Bondeson might be an interesting read for you, coming at the basic subject from a left-field angle. It’s a historical survey of the fear of being thought dead when not yet fully expired, and all of the various social and physical systems put in place to prevent being buried before one’s time (or to be rescued from a premature burial). We learn about waiting houses in which corpses are temporarily stored and monitored to ensure the dead really are dead before they’re planted, there’s a number of alarm systems installed in coffins, the medical authorities of the times compete to create the most reliable confirmation methods, and so on. Interesting (morbid) stuff. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/12 "2008-05-19T16:47:22Z")
Perhaps not what the OP is asking for, but all Discworld novels where Death figures as a central (and sometimes a soul-searching) character, including _Mort_ and _Reaper Man._ ---
**Author:** ![Gulo\_gulo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bcef8e/32.png) [@Gulo\_gulo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gulo_gulo)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/13 "2008-05-19T23:17:56Z")
The [Fireside Book of Death by Robert Wilkins](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fireside-Book-Death-Robert-Wilkins/dp/0708853749) has always been one of my favourites. From what I recall (neither of my copies are handy) it’s UK-centric which may not be what you are looking for. It covers the change of attitudes towards death over the years though and is very interesting. Lots of illustrations too. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/14 "2008-05-20T01:03:56Z")
It’s not limited to Western cultures, but [Death: The Trip of a Lifetime](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062509543/sr=8-9/qid=1211244782/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1211244782&sr=8-9&seller=) by Greg Palmer — former local playwright and television film critic — is a wonderful exploration of how individuals and cultures approach the subject. My favorite segments involve a Ghanaian fetish priest (“witch doctor” to the ill-informed) and a mortuary in Australia run entirely by women (“women bring us into the world, women take us out”). ---
**Author:** ![Jimson\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@Jimson\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimson_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/15 "2008-05-20T13:09:04Z")
For reasons I’ll never understand the last half of my 9th grade English class we read two books on death. The aforementioned On Death and Dying and [Death be Not Proud](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Be_Not_Proud). Certainly not a cultural study but a detailed narration that provides anecdotal reports of how people react to death in our society. Why on earth an English teacher would have a group of 14-15 year old read two books, one after the other on death and hold detailed discussions of death, dying and it’s role in literature, is beyond me. As I think about it we capped it all off with Hamlet. ---
**Author:** ![partlycloudy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/partlycloudy/32/3114_2.png) [@partlycloudy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partlycloudy)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/16 "2008-05-20T21:39:50Z")
Ah yes, On Death and Dying, I don’t know how I forgot about that one. I always meant to read it, and I think now is a good time. There are some really great suggestions here. I’ve got “How We Die” on its way to my mailbox right now - hopefully. I will also check out “The Fireside Book of Death” (I like UK-centric) and “Buried Alive” and maybe a few of your other recommendations. Thanks TM! -L. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-books-about-death/449804/17 "2008-05-20T21:58:40Z")
In addition to _Stiff_, Mary Roach produced [Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393059626), another good read. I bought and read them sequentially. 🙂 Good novel with an interesting take on dying and the afterlife, [The Brief History of the Dead](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375423699) by Kevin Brockmeier. (Interestingly, I bought all three of those books, along with _World War Z_ by Max Brooks, and also reread _The Stand_ by Stephen King right around the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, but yet thought I was “recovering just fine” and “nothing was bothering me.” Ha!)