When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

BATB score: 10/10 💙

#BATBREREAD

Best as: what a one-of-a-kind story indeed; giving it your all for neurosurgeon residency just a few months away to graduation (delayed gratification) diagnosed with terminal cancer (life has other plans) - life took a big detour to chemo and therapy - and yet life was cut short to only 22 months more; total lifetime 37 y/o

Best to: death is inevitable, it’s just a matter of how soon

Best for: just a reminder that this book made Bill Gates cry

BATB lingering thought: I am 32 y/o now. If I know that I only have 5 more years to live, oh hell yeah, I would not be doing what I am doing. Knowing so, can I really make that drastic lifestyle change? Since it may not be 5 more years but 50?

Best quote: “I began to realize that coming in such close contact with my own mortality had changed both nothing and everything. […] The fact of death is unsettling. Yet there is no other way to live.”