The Best Books on Aging

[EDITORIAL NOTE: Zoe Riley, who blogs at Journeys Through Time, has joined the Quarterstaff Revolution. Is there anyone else out there with a photograph of themselves with their staff? If so, please do send it in.]

There are thousands of books about getting old and sometimes I feel as though I’ve read them all – painfully in cases when they are about how to pretend you are still young or are filled with bad jokes or with treacle enough to turn your gills green.

There are, however, a few I consider essential – informative, inspiring and wise, each in its own way:

What Are Old People For?
By Dr. William H. Thomas who contributes bi-weekly columns on this blog as The TGB Geriatrician.

Why Survive? Being Old in America
By Dr. Robert N. Butler who coined the term “ageism.” This book, published in 1975, won the Pulitzer Prize.

The Longevity Revolution
Also by Dr. Robert N. Butler. He gave TGB an excellent interview about this new book last April.

The Fountain of Age
By the mother of modern feminism, Betty Friedan, published in 1993. Hard going to read, but rewarding for the effort.

The Summer of a Dormouse
By British playwright, novelist and barrister, John Mortimer, who is also the author of the Rumpole of the Bailey series of stories.

From Age-ing to Sage-ing
By Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi published in 1997.

Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton. Secondarily, these two by her: At Seventy: A Journal and Encore: A Journal of the Eightieth Year

Of course, there are others that are good, but these rise so far above the ordinary that I consider them my personal guides to getting old. I often peruse sections of them at random and am never disappointed.

In a recent email, Camille Shaffer, who has contributed some stories to The Elder Storytelling Place, reminded me of another book, The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty by Carolyn G. Heilbrun which I’ve allowed to sit on the shelf for too long. You might know Ms. Heilbrun by her mystery-writing pseudonym, Amanda Cross.

I don’t agree with some of Ms. Heilbrun’s observations about getting old, but that doesn’t make her book less thoughtful and important. Camille picked out some quotes to include in her email that sang to her and may inspire you:

“I have become more physically settled in my sixties, liking to be home, or toggling from one home to the next. Routine, which I used to scorn as next door to incarceration, holds new appeal for me. But one must not sit and think and ruminate all day.”

“Our sixties give us the chance to get out, not only from a job but from much else that we have been doing unquestioningly for a long time.”

The point is only that for those retired, with too much time and no world, a world must be found, and not necessarily one that is heavily populated. One can join a group or work alone; the essential is that the work be difficult, concentrated, and that definite progress can be measured. If the undertaking is not to become another daily habit, daily donned and discarded, it requires strong effort and the evidence of growing proficiency.”

“…it is our very presence that is important to the young. They want us to be there: not in their homes, perhaps, not watching them with a baleful eye as they go about their daily work, but there. We reassure them that life continues, and if we listen, we assure them that it matters to us that it continues.”

“Aging, particularly in the later decades, is a drawing in. Encounters with the outside world diminish for many reasons. The solitude of old age is often pleasurable. There is peace, a sense of the present.”

As the media has caught on to the fact that the gigantic generation of baby boomers is beginning to enter late life, they have rushed to cash in with a plethora of books about getting old, and there will only be more in the years to come. Most are quick hits with no intention to value or thoughtfulness, so superficial they float up off the table.

But you cannot go wrong with any of the ones above.

(NOTE 1: I have created a new section for this book list which is permanently available from the right sidebar under TGB Features. I will update this from time to time with any new (or new to me), good books I discover. There are also a few representative quotations from the books.)

(NOTE 2: The book links above go to the books' pages at amazon.com. If you choose to buy any and use these links to do so, I will receive a small commission.)

[At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Sharon McKinney gives us a School Tale which is not what you would immediately think it is.]