It is amazing how you can pick up a book and find yourself engrossed in its contents. It has never crossed my mind to buy non-medical books. There was simply no monetary allocation for non-medical books. Today was different.

So here I was browsing a shelf between the categories of "self-help" and "death & dying" at Borders. It was only moments ago that I browsed through a rags to riches or rather peasant to celebrity storyline, when I happen to pull a book titled "Chasing Daylight".

The subtitle read " How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life" by Eugene O'Kelly. That name meant nothing to me. However his story stumped me. A successful man with everything going his way hacked down to size by a diagnosis of advanced brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme. It is the way that he dealt with the situation that intrigued me.

As doctors, a diagnosis of cancer or even death itself can be taken rather lightly. After all , it happens everyday and we have grown rather immune to it. For patients, it can be a life transforming event. Not everyone is as "lucky" as Eugene who had the finances and social support or the ability to tell his story. Many have to brave the storm ill equipped.

His book is not only about how he dealt with death but has important pointers as to how to live.

"All the plans that Corinne and I had made for our future had to be junked. It was hard not to lament that one of the big reasons we'd sacrificed so much time together , across so many years, as I traveled the world and worked ungodly hours - namely, so that on the other side of it we could enjoy a prosperous retirement together- had been a tease, only we hadn't known it."

It reflects what so many of us are doing. Spending so much time at work, that life passes us by. Saving for the future and neglecting the present can be a foolish act.

The fascination continues as I turn the pages.