Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of How We Die
By (Author) Michael Largo
HarperCollins Publishers Inc
HarperPaperbacks
7th December 2006
United States
General
Non Fiction
Sociology: death and dying
306.9
Winner of Bram Stoker Awards (Nonfiction) 2006
Paperback
464
Width 127mm, Height 228mm
622g
We all die, but how will it happen Although we all live longer today, people are killed by some strange things, including bingo, bad words, flying cows, eating hair, frozen toilets, laughing and toupees. According to death certificates, there are over 3000 ways to die. In this eye-opening and addictive book, the ways we die are arranged in alphabetical order. Thoroughly researched, with uncanny historical detail, Final Exits is much more than just a trivia book: it is a portrait in words and numbers of human fate.
"Every mortal should read this book, before they find themselves in its pages." -- Daniel Handler
In the spirit of Schott's Miscellany comes an eye-opening and entertaining look at the truth behind kicking the bucket, the definitive A to Z illustrated sourcebook on the way we die. To die, kick the bucket, to meet your Maker, dead as a doornail, get whacked, smoked, bite the dust, sleep with the fishes, go six feet under, whatever death is called, it's going to happen. But how do we die It's the enormous variety of HOW that enlivens FINAL EXITS. According to death certificates, in the year 1700 there were less than 100 causes of death. Today there are 3,000 and with each advance of technology, people find new ways to become deceased, often causing trends that peak in the first year. People are now killed by everything, from cell phones, washing machines, lawn mowers and toothpicks, to the boundless catalogue of man-made medicines. In FINAL EXITS the causes of death, bizarre or common, are alphabetically arranged and include actual accounts of people, both famous and ordinary, who unfortunately died that way. Illustrated with medical and historical illustrations and art from throughout the ages, FINAL EXITS is more than a trivia book, it is a portrait in words and numbers of human fate.