Just finished reading (OK… listening to) When Breath becomes Air. I heard about the book when going through an NPR article. I found it interesting the wife, and survivor of their illness, was promoting the book for her late husband. I found it even more interesting that cancer can get to everyone, even if you are a highly-decorated neurosurgeon, as Paul was.
I found the book to be a great insight into what it is to be alive, the challenges everyone faces while being alive and how difficult it is, even for a medical professional, to truly empathize with patients.
His description of how mechanical our brains can be, and how parts of our “humanity” can be turned on/off were exciting and sad at the same time.
His exploration around God, love, hate and science reminded me of “The Last Lecture“, when Randy tells the story about a little kid questioning whether or not Santa Claus existed.
Some parts were a little slow and mono-tone, but the overall message and experience was well worth it.