When Breath Becomes Air

When Breath Becomes Air
When Paul Kalanithi decided to study literature it was for what he could discover about humanity, "Books became my closest confidants, finely ground lenses providing new views of the world." When after he finished his literature degree he discovered he wanted more physical knowledge about the brain and body he decided to study medicine. 

He found his true calling in medicine, “Those burdens are what make medicine holy and wholly impossible: in taking up another’s cross, one must sometimes get crushed by the weight.” Ultimately, he is his own test case on what the process is for someone facing death. 
"...I had trained for years to actively engage with death, to grapple with it..and in so doing, confront the meaning of a life."
"The fact of death is unsettling. Yet there is no other way to live." 

 This book to me is about learning how someone confronts their own mortality and how to live with that day to day. His wife, Lucy Kalanithi says, "Pauls decision not to avert his eyes from death epitomizes a fortitude we don't celebrate enough in our death-avoidant culture." 

I loved this book because for me it was a reminder that we all are going to die. We all try to forget this fact of life, and that it is a journey we are all on every day. What do we do with this life and what makes it worthwhile?