Every Third Thought Audiobook By Robert McCrum cover art

Every Third Thought

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Every Third Thought

By: Robert McCrum
Narrated by: Robert McCrum
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $11.18

Buy for $11.18

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

After a near fatal stroke in 1995, Robert McCrum has gained an intimate understanding of his own mortality. Twenty-two years on, his friends have joined him in experiencing Prospero's 'every third thought' of death as a dominating theme of life.

McCrum asks: can we make peace with what Freud calls 'the necessity of dying'? Searching for answers leads him to brain surgeons, psychologists, cancer patients and writers for advice and wisdom. For anyone preoccupied by living in the lengthening shadow of mortality, Every Third Thought is an enthralling guide and companion.

©2017 Robert McCrum (P)2017 W.F. Howes Ltd
Authors Grief & Loss Physical Illness & Disease Psychology Relationships Sociology Dementia Aging
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Every Third Thought

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Ends Lightly, But Boy How Grim!

Every Third Thought is the concept of coming to terms with human frailty and raging against the dying light. It's long on grimness, short on optimism. It's a study of how we all step out of the world, and it sort of reminded me of a modern How We Die, with its chapters on the horrors and indignities of dementia and Alzheimer's.
But there's more! More of the hopelessness and unfairness of Parkinson's. More of the ravages of chemotherapy and radiation. More of the utter futility of being bound by a stroke-damaged brain. More of just plainly and simply aging to the point of humiliating dependency.
It does have its sages, its heroes, its resilient people, but boy was I kinda worn down by it all. I live and breathe dying memoirs, hospice memoirs, books on the grace of dying, and Every Third Thought is a good one, it's just that it's low on wisdom. At the end, McCrum finds the most wisdom from C.S. Lewis's A Grief Observed, and I have to agree. That's a much better, more inspiring work. Still, this book is better than a lot of them and sheds light on the science behind today's leading causes of death.
Don't expect any sense of spirit as it is also unapologetically secular. There is nothing after we die, so McCrum encourages us to live The Now. With that, and a happy ending, I felt I'd managed to catch my breath on a pretty grim tour of what's in store for me, for all of us.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful