The Whole Death Catalog Audiobook By Harold Schechter cover art

The Whole Death Catalog

A Lively Guide to the Bitter End

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The Whole Death Catalog

By: Harold Schechter
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
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In the tradition of Mary Roach's best-selling Stiff and Jessica Mitford's classic expose The American Way of Death comes this meticulously researched and refreshingly irreverent look at death from acclaimed author Harold Schechter. With his trademark fearlessness and bracing sense of humor, Schechter digs deep into a wealth of sources to unearth a treasure trove of surprising facts, amusing anecdotes, practical information, and timeless wisdom about that undiscovered country to which we will all one day travel. Topics include:

  • Death anxiety - is your fear of death normal or off the scale?
  • You can't take it with you . . . or can you? Wacky wills and bizarre bequests
  • The hospice experience - going out in comfort and style
  • Deathbed and funeral etiquette - how to help the dying and mourn the dead with dignity
  • Death on demand - why the right-to-die movement may be the next big thing
  • "Good-bye everybody" - famous last words
©2009 Harold Schechter (P)2019 Tantor Grief & Loss Personal Development Relationships Sociology Witty
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It has a lot of quaint little facts and amusing notations and anecdotes. It also has a lot of references to other materials that don't work when read aloud. For example, after about the 10th "Double You Double You Double You Dot WebsiteNameInEntirety Dot Com Slash File Under Score This Under Score Interesting Under Score Thing Under Score Here Slash Ad Nauseum..." I just couldn't do it anymore. I could see this being a really interesting book to have in physical form. It has great little sections perfect for short term reading (toilet reading is how I think of it) and seems like it might be a good book for someone unsuited to longer, linear storytelling. I returned it, but I could see enjoying it in a different format.

The narrator was enthusiastic. Not bad.

Bathroom literature, not audible book material.

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Oh jeez. The descriptor indicated this was a work in the same vein as Mary Roach, which was the only reason that I got it. This is nothing like Mary roach. It is long winded, tedious, and just meh.

Wanted to Like It…But

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