May was not my most prolific book-reading month! It was a
busy month, but I also could have tried a little harder. The beautiful thing
about not being in school (yet) is that I don’t have to read if there
are other things I’d rather do. May was my month for that.
I did
read one book, and it was very different from my normal choices!
Six
years ago, when Ryan’s mom passed away, the family asked me to write her obituary,
and I did. When I shared it on Facebook after it printed, one of my writer
friends messaged me to tell me she’d enjoyed reading. We started talking about
obituaries, and she told me about Jim Sheeler, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer
who has written books about obituaries. I put all of them on my wish list and a
few months ago, I finally tracked down a used copy of the one titled Obit.
Interesting
fact about Jim: he was inducted into the Obituary Writers’ Hall of Fame, which
I did not even know was a thing until I read this book. And, by the way, that Hall
of Fame is overseen by the International Association of Obituarists, which I didn’t
know was a thing (or a word).
The
book Obit features “inspiring stories of ordinary people who led
extraordinary lives.” Each chapter is the story of someone who died and the
things that made them who they are. The obituaries are not like the pieces we
read in the newspaper. They aren’t lists of accomplishments and family members.
They are live stories succinctly told in a few hundred words, and each one
holds an important life lesson for the reader to take away.
At the
beginning of the book, Jim said, “When I began writing obituaries, my goal was
to write about people whose names had never appeared in the newspaper, to find
the stories that had never been told – and, just as important, the lessons they
left behind…When Interviewing friends and relatives, one of the questions I
always ask is, ‘What did you learn from this person’s life?’”
I loved
reading the stories of the people. Each chapter of the book was a different
obituary, a different life story. Some were young, others old. Some had bee
surprised by death and others waited for it to arrive. Some lived simply,
others lived extravagantly. All of them left a mark on the world, and Jim Sheeler
captured it in story form.
I didn’t
have something in common with every person I read about, but I did learn something
from each of them.
I hope
my writing captures the lessons I learn from those around me, and I hope I put
into practice the good things I learned from reading this book.
Here’s
to a June filled with more reading!
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