1001 Ridiculous Ways to Die

David Southwell & Matt Adams

Harper Collins

One dons the dark cloak of black humour when they crack the cover of this new member of the 1001 family (albeit potentially illegitimate member). Morbidity has its own special brand of humour, which this book banks on, by chronicling 1001 ridiculous ways to die.

There’s the poor man picked up by gale force winds and deposited in a lake, whilst he was out for an afternoon stroll with his dog; the undertaker killed when a coffin broke free in the hearse and crushed him; the Italian priest crushed to death by the 1000kg bell he was ringing and, in a nursing home horror movie scene, the stroke patient who was stuffed to death by his home care feeding machine.

The authors write in the introduction, "in writing this book we have come to learn that death is arbitrary – impersonal, uncaring, totally indifferent to any force you care to invoke for protection against it." And never a truer word has been spoken about the Grim Reaper. No one is safe from his hood, nor his scythe – the only thing you can do is fend him off for as long as possible and enjoy doing it. In other words, live life. Really live it.

Flipping through the, at times cruelly ironic, ways people have kicked the bucket over the years, after the bouts of hilarity and "oh that’s unfortunate" murmurs, you are suddenly hit with that burning sentiment that shoots through your stomach and blossoms somewhere in the decision making lobe of your brain, the chestnut so old, it’s rather wizened - if death is so close then I better start actually living. Actually execute those travel plans, do that trapeze course, learn to speak Spanish, read the stack of classics on your bedside table, have the foreign movie marathon you’ve been putting off, move to Tuscany, hike through Asia, jump out of a plane (just please pull your parachute string and don’t become like the guy in the book so desperate to film every second of his jump, he forgot to pull his) …

If you read this book for any reason, make it so you finally get around to ticking off that 1001 Things to do Before I Die list. That and it makes excellent fodder for red wine conversation with your friends.