Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Gratitude
    Unavailable
    Gratitude
    Unavailable
    Gratitude
    Audiobook36 minutes

    Gratitude

    Written by Oliver Sacks

    Narrated by Dan Woren

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A meditation on "what is meant by living a good and worthwhile life," and a moving and inspiring gift.

    My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved. I have been given much and I have given something in return. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure. - Oliver Sacks

    No writer has succeeded in capturing the medical and human drama of illness as honestly and as eloquently as Oliver Sacks.

    During the last few months of his life, he wrote a set of essays in which he movingly explored his feelings about completing a life and coming to terms with his own death.

    "It is the fate of every human being," Sacks writes, "to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death."

    Together, these four essays form an ode to the uniqueness of each human being and to gratitude for the gift of life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateNov 24, 2015
    ISBN9780735206137
    Unavailable
    Gratitude
    Author

    Oliver Sacks

    Oliver Sacks (Londres, 1933 - Nueva York, 2015) fue profesor de Neurología Clínica en el Albert Einstein College de Nueva York. En Anagrama ha publicado sus obras fundamentales: los ensayos Migraña, Despertares, Con una sola pierna, El hombre que confundió a su mujer con un sombrero, Veo una voz, Un antropólogo en Marte, La isla de los ciegos al color, El tío Tungsteno, Diario de Oaxaca, Musicofilia, Los ojos de la mente, Alucinaciones y El río de la conciencia y los volúmenes de memorias En movimiento y Gratitud.

    Related to Gratitude

    Related audiobooks

    Philosophy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: October 2017

      Oct 3, 2017

      Poetry is malleable and moving; a form that will never tire of importance. The post Must-Read Poetry: October 2017 appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      EDITOR’S Note

      Aug 18, 2021

      IN THE POEM “PREPARE” BY JOY HARJO, AT THE BEGINNING of the poet laureate’s new memoir, Poet Warrior, there is a stanza that I’ve returned to nearly every day—almost like a prayer, more like a song—since I first read it in an advance proof of the boo

      2 min read

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: September 2020

      Sep 4, 2020

      Our own Nick Ripatrazone takes a look at nine new books of poetry, including work by Sumita Chakraborty, Joy Priest, Ross Gay, and Dan Chiasson. The post Must-Read Poetry: September 2020 appeared first on The Millions.

      9 min read

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: May 2018

      May 2, 2018

      Here are six notable books of poetry publishing in May. Tropic of Squalor by Mary Karr Scorched, palpable, sometimes pungent, sometimes brutal: Karr’s new collection is a mixture of tight narratives that end without resolution, hymns of unsettled suf

      6 min read

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: July 2020

      Jul 1, 2020

      Our own Nick Ripatrazone takes a look at new books of poetry from Cleopatra Mathis, Alice Oswald, Karen Solie, and Charlotte Pence. The post Must-Read Poetry: July 2020 appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Day I Heard Poetry Call

      Apr 11, 2019

      I am in seventh-grade language arts class in an upstairs room in the old red-brick junior high school building. The afternoon sun streams through high windows that face onto the playground and athletic fields. It is the day I remember hearing this ph

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Writing Wisdom of Derek Walcott

      Mar 20, 2017

      “The future happens,” says the philosopher in Derek Walcott’s stage retelling of Homer’s Odyssey, “No matter how much we scream.” Walcott died on Friday at the age of 87—and instead of screaming, I’m feeling grateful towards this great poet, playwrig

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Song Starts In My Body

      Nov 1, 2022

      I wanted to see her body. I’m aware it sounds strange, even lurid. What I wanted was to see her read her poetry, and her body reading it. Something about Rukeyser’s writing made me feel that she was at home in her flesh, and I wanted to see her lovin

      21 min read

    • Article

      The American Poetry Review At 50

      Nov 1, 2022

      The American Poetry Review At 50
      21 min read

    • Article

      Alice Quinn Bids Farewell to PSA

      Jun 12, 2019

      This summer Alice Quinn will step down as the executive director of the Poetry Society of America (PSA), a position she has held for the past eighteen years. During her tenure, the PSA launched multiple new poetry prizes, organized hundreds of events

      2 min read

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: September 2017

      Sep 11, 2017

      Isn’t that one of the purest goals of poetry—to justify our breaths? To recognize that we matter? The post Must-Read Poetry: September 2017 appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Science of Writing

      Jan 30, 2019

      “You’re an oceanographer?” The librarian shakes his head, incredulous, his spectacles tossing a circle of sunlight on the floor between us. “I always knew I wanted to be a novelist,” I reply. “So, naturally, I spent the first two decades of my adult

      2 min read

    • Article

      Think What a Poem Might Do: A Conversation with Jill Bialosky and Matthew Zapruder

      Aug 17, 2017

      What, if anything, do you think poetry can do for us in these difficult times? The post Think What a Poem Might Do: A Conversation with Jill Bialosky and Matthew Zapruder appeared first on The Millions.

      10 min read

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: May 2020

      May 6, 2020

      Our own Nick Ripatrazone takes a look a new poetry from John Freeman, Rosanna Warren, Juditha Dowd and Kiki Petrosino—plus an anthology edited Leah Silvieus and Lee Herrick. The post Must-Read Poetry: May 2020 appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      ON SILENCE & SONG

      Jan 1, 2023

      Books “When you contemplate an object,” Plotinus tells us, “you become that thing, offer yourself as matter, allow yourself to be shaped in the form of the contemplated thing. If you remain encircled in yourself, then you are empty of world, and empt

      11 min read

    • Article

      Head Cases

      Sep 3, 2019

      Head Cases
      4 min read

    • Article

      Letter To Arthur Sze From Penngrove

      Jul 1, 2023

      To Arthur Sze, dear friend, Keeper of the Acequia, now I remember … finding your poems in Tyuonyi, a small literary magazine published by the remarkable poet and editor Phillip Foss, during a time, the early 1980s, when both of you were teaching at t

      5 min read

    • Article

      Must-Read Poetry: Spring 2023

      Apr 3, 2023

      Nick Ripatrazone spotlights the best poetry collections of Q2. The post Must-Read Poetry: Spring 2023 appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    Reviews for Gratitude

    4/5

    150 ratings20 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Four of Sacks' final essays, each lovely and Sacksian. I lament that we won't have any new essays by this wonderful writer: we will not see his like again.
    • 5/5
      Four essays as he faces death in gratitude for a life lived well. They are short and to the point.
    • 4/5
      Gratitude. Oliver Sacks. 2015. I found this book on a list from Book Riot within minutes of getting an email from a friend who just found out that one of her best friends had died. As soon as I read the blub I ordered a copy for her and for me. Four beautifully written essays by Oliver Sacks in which he sensibly and gently examines his life and his approaching death. No sentimentality, no sense of God, but a strong sense of living a good life and an honest look at its ending.
    • 4/5
      Very short work. An interesting perspective on his own life and death from a talented gay, Jewish doctor and author. Sacks felt satisfied with what he had achieved in his life - but what if you are facing death and you feel you have achieved nothing?.
    • 5/5
      Loved this short book of essays. Reflections from Oliver Sacks on his longevity and terminal cancer diagnosis. More uplifting than dismal.
    • 4/5
      Four short pieces, written as Sacks was learning that his cancer had metastasized and his time was short. Two of them are interesting meditations on the elements as markers of the years of your life (element 80 is mercury; 82, the last year Sacks had, is lead; and he got a piece of bismuth, element 84, although he never quite reached that age). The other two are slightly more general, about how Sacks felt about his approaching death, and the life he'd led until then - the title of the book comes from one of these. Very short - a total of 45 pages - with quite a lot of depth in those few pages. Not sweet, exactly, but very rich. Glad I read it - and I'll be recommending it to others.
    • 5/5
      Gratitude is an exquisit collection of four essays by Oliver Sacks.Beutifully crafted those essays give a wonderful insight in lived life. And although I am still young, those essays of an elderly man on the brink of his death are unexpectedly moving and touching.
    • 5/5
      This is the second time in my life I read or listen to someone write or talk about their thoughts on death. Especially at that time when they know they’re about to die. After living full lives, making mistakes and having achieved much. It is scary, and more likely so if you suffer from death anxiety. And yet, it is all exciting and comforting. Admirable even. This audiobook is a good listen.
    • 5/5
      This book was so inspiring. It’s amazing to hear the thoughts of a world renowned scientist looking back on his own life. Read this if you want to be enthused by one of neurology’s most prolific minds.
    • 5/5
      Oliver Sacks's books take you along in his life's journey. And 'Gratitude' brings closure
    • 4/5
      Lovely book!
    • 5/5
      Not many books I give 5 stars. I knew nothing of this small, short book. I found it at the back of a suitcase, full of small books at the op shop today! It was the authors name that caught my eye, the book missing its dust jacket. I bought it and read straight through in my lunch break. The only thing I can add to other reviews is, this is a lovely gentle book, written by a man who was at a place of inspirational peace of mind at the end of his life.
    • 5/5
      This is an extremely short collection of four essays by this author who thinks about life and how grateful he is for all he has experienced after a terminal cancer diagnosis. It is a wonderful, uplifting look at how wonderful life truly is and why we should be grateful for every moment.
    • 5/5
      This book is a compilation of essays written by Oliver Sacks after his diagnosis of terminal cancer in 2015. And rather than expressing dismay or anger at the world for a shortened life, he writes about gratitude for a life filled with beauty and love. This is definitely a book to read again and again to get a glimpse of an amazing man and to hopefully gain some of his grace and optimism. Loved it!
    • 5/5
      This slight book contains four short essays written by Oliver Sacks over the last two years of his life: "Mercury," "My Own Life," "My Periodic Table" and "Sabbath." Each are reflections of a life well-lived by a passionate man in his eighties and make for lovely, uplifting reading.
    • 3/5
      This book was good; but I expected so much more from it that I was disappointed. Oliver Sacks's writing is inspiring and life even more so and in death he has shown us how to live.
    • 5/5
      Basically a compilation of essays that appeared in the New York Times after the author knew he was dying.  The essays are calm and beautifully written. The book is both very simple book and yet complex, as peace is complex to those of us who don't yet understand it. One of my favorite books so far this year. 
    • 5/5
      This really brief book of four essays count among the most moving pieces I have ever read by anyone facing his own imminent demise. Having survived his unusual cancer for almost a decade, he was shocked to discover that although he felt wonderfully well, he was, indeed, now doomed. He took solace from his family and his friends, his memories and his accomplishments, recognizing that we all have a finite timeline. After reading his essays, it can only be said that he faced his death with dignity and grace, as well as with an appreciation and recognition of all that life had given him. I was moved emotionally to tears, but I was also moved to hope that I might face my death in much the same way, with an acceptance and a sense of joy for all I had been lucky enough to receive and enjoy as I “shuffled along on this mortal coil”.
    • 5/5
      Gratitude was an unexpected pleasure with a twist. It is a series of essays written by Oliver Sacks a famous author but unknown to me, during the last phases of his life. This not a series that you will want to rush through. These are essays that you will want to think about and meditate on. Although the essays are about aging and ultimately dying I found them life affirming. They are not religious in nature. Sacks life choices run counter to mine. Yet the essays take on a spiritual quality that went beyond a particular belief system. We meet Mr. Sacks at the eve of his eightieth birthday. He reflects on his past’s years the once vigorous man now frail in body and not in spirit. He is honestly grateful for all that he has experienced write in such prose as to make me want to make it to eighty. The next essay we find we find Sacks contemplating on the recurrence of a life threatening cancer and his impending death. Yet, this not a despairing tome, but one where he gives thanks for years of life during intervening years. I have been given much and I have given something in return. In the penultimate essay Sacks reflects on his childhood in England during the Second World War. The reader begins to see how and why as child Sacks became enamored with the periodic table of elements. We see how this became a vehicle for him to measure his life from birth Hydrogen number one on the Periodic table to his current age Thallium 82 on the Periodic table and his hope for and doubts about reaching Bismuth 83 on the table. We see how while aging he loses friend and loved ones on the way toward our enviable meeting with death. Like a good striptease artist Sacks saves the ultimate chapter to reveal his most personal of details. We gain insights on the mundane how his family practiced the Sabbath to profound personal truths. In this essay the Sabbath is portent of his impending death.
    • 4/5
      A set of short yet poignant essays from the final years of Sacks' life dwelling on the meaning and fragility of human life. Here he expresses his gratitude for all of the blessings in his life, while also sharing some of his more intimate hardships. It's always interesting to read of the orthodox Jewish faith and family dynamic, especially from Sacks, who shared the difficulties in explaining to his parents his same-sex attraction: it was great to hear of his family visit to Israel, late in his life, in which he was warmly welcomed alongside his partner despite theological disagreements. Sacks admired the small things in life as much as the larger discoveries with a real joie de vivre: it was great to hear of his passion for the periodic table, so much so that his friends would purchase him the atomic element of each birthday milestone. His life ending when it did, meant that he never received any polonium … !