How We Die by Sherwin B. Nuland
Published 1994 · 85,000 words · about 6 hours at an average pace · Health & Medicine, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Science & Nature
How hard is How We Die to read?
How We Die scores 27 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 38 out of 100
- Medical and anatomical terminology throughout.
- Sentence structure: 32 out of 100
- Abstraction: 35 out of 100
- Biological processes with philosophical reflection.
- Information density: 52 out of 100
- Dense clinical detail combined with personal narrative.
- Narrative indirection: 12 out of 100
- Case studies alternate with biological exposition.
- Symbolic density: 15 out of 100
- The dying body as window into what it means to live.
- Ironic distance: 15 out of 100
- Clinical detachment tempered by personal grief.
- Resolution withholding: 15 out of 100
- Death is the resolution. No comfort offered.
- Structural complexity: 25 out of 100
- Organized by cause of death. Clear architecture.
How How We Die is regarded
How We Die holds a literary regard score of 49 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.