For Those Who’d Rather Die Than Read (teehee) (In Revival – Pun Intended)

[This post originally appeared on April 5, 2012. If you wonder why it’s back, visit here. I used to do Top Ten lists as a regular feature; not sure why I haven’t picked it back up, really. Should I?]

Ah, I slay me.  Oh wait, actually, these authors will (sort of).  You see, today’s list is all about life, death, after-life, other-life, immortality, and/or divinity.

I’m so punny.

Seriously though, there are a lot of really great and interesting stories out there about death/after-life in all its possible (re)incarnations (teehee, I’m sorry, I will stop soon, I swear, it’s just so easy I can’t help myself!).  I suppose there is good reason for this – the whole “what comes next” thing is one of the (if not the) great mysteries of the universe, after all.  And since no one here knows, everyone can imagine or theorize anything they please and every idea has an equal opportunity to be possible or true.  It’s like a smorgasbord for authors…

Some of these are tear-jerkers.  Death does, after all, always involve a loss – for family, friends, mankind, the universe.  Even when it is a relief to the person dying, it necessarily means that the people left behind have less than they did before.

Some are funny.  Death is often bizarre and random, and without any sense of why things happen or for what reason, there is a lot of theater of the absurd around many death/dying stories.  Add in the concepts of after-life, divinity, immortality, and un-death and you have an unlimited set of circumstances for creating fanciful and ridiculous tales highlighting that absurdity in the most delicious possible ways.

All of them are thought-provoking.  This is a Big Issue, and as with any Big Issue it requires some suspension of disbelief, some willingness to consider the difference between impossible and improbable, and some open-mindedness to the inexplicable.  To my mind, these are the ingredients for fantastic reading – the kind that makes you think while also entertaining – and these books are some of my favorites for just that reason.  So enjoy!

Top 10 Books About Death/After-Life/Immortality/Divinity (from the mystical to the comforting to the just-plain-weird)

• The Eternal Ones – Kirsten Miller
• What Dreams May Come – Richard Matheson
• Afterlove – Robert Rosenblum
• Forever – Pete Hamill
• The Dogs of Babel – Carolyn Parkhurst
• The Pact: A Love Story – Jodi Picoult
• The Old Man And Mr Smith – Peter Ustinov
• The Second Greatest Story Ever Told – Gorman Bechard
• The Thief of Time – John Boyne
• Pale Horse, Pale Rider – Katherine Anne Porter