'Sum' by David Eagleman

Hi

Having finished 'The Book of Dave', I've been cracking on with Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of Nearly Everything'. I'm about halfway through and I'm enjoying it very much. It keeps reminding me of things I learnt in science and geology from school and college. There's an interesting passage about the warring palaeontologists Richard Owen and Gideon Mantell, which, if I'm feeling pretentious enough, I might write about at some point.

In any case, being only halfway through, I'm not going to talk about the Bryson book yet, but rather David Eagleman's 'Sum', a book I read shortly before embarking on my summer reading list. 'Sum' is a short collection of even shorter stories, each detailing different imaginings of the afterlife. For example, in one version of the afterlife, we discover god is a microbe. In another, life is found to be a simulation designed by aliens. There are thirty-eight other episodes - read the first (and an interview with Eagleman) here.

The best thing about 'Sum' is undoubtedly the sheer variety and depth of the author's creativity. The book has been embraced by the religious and atheist communities equally and perhaps best serves to demonstrate precisely that no one has any idea what happens after death and how anything could be possible. Eagleman's imagination becomes almost addictive and I found myself eagerly reading to see what the neuroscientist would come up with next.

There's a touch of the eccentric creativity of Douglas Adams, Grant Naylor or Scott Adams' 'God's Debris' and if you've enjoyed anything they've written, you'll almost definitely appreciate 'Sum'. The book is very short - each story lasts approximately two pages - so if you're in need of a quick head-spin, look no further.