Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro address 'The Path of Purposeful Aging', growing from adulthood to elderhood.

They tell us that 'the societal story of aging is stuck in a script from our grandparents' or great-grandparents' era', with elders often viewed as a drain on society.

The authors reject that narrative, encouraging elders to live a purposeful rather than a default life by being intentional about place, people, life work and/or purpose.

This is an encouraging book written by two older men about how to imagine our elder years in ways that give us purpose and happiness. It doesn't address all of the issues that very old age can carry, but it does a good job of helping you dream up a positive new path in your later years.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.

Having retired last year and dealing with lockdown changing my plans i thought this book might be insightful but unfortunately it wasn’t for me. It did make me realise that I’m not lacking purpose, i think it is more suitable for someone who has made work their life and cant imagine the future without it. The authors have included many personal anecdotes that although interesting were not all relevant. If you have no clue about retirement and are afraid of the ageing process maybe some of the information could be helpful.

Reading this from a perspective of a twenty-nine-year-old definitely differs from reading it at some other age.

Both authors are very witty and charming at times, I'll give them that. This book goes into the basics of growing old. I guess not all of us are afraid of ageing, but it is definitely a present topic because sooner or later everyone goes through it.

The reason why I chose this title is that I am afraid of both, death and ageing. Not in terms that my life will be terminated, but in terms that it won't be lived to the fullest or that as I grew older I would be of course weaker. This is a state of mind the authors mention as well, ageing as a natural process doesn't have to be a myth! You don't have to be worried about something which is surely going to happen, and you should definitely learn how to make your life fuller. The authors give light descriptions of all the possible fears, not only of death but also when people are unable to recognize themselves in the mirror when they struggle to accept physical changes and try to solve them by doing plastic surgery to fix it. This book is definitely a good idea of where to start, and aid to compare your experience and find what you are doing wrong. OF course, authors can't find a measure for happiness for ourselves, that is something we can do. But they gave us a rather nice encounter to what we might expect and how we should tackle those situations.

I would like to highlight that the book is nicely organised, and I especially liked the questions at the back which could help a reader if they struggle so that they could find the chapter they could read again.



I retired just before Covid and all my plans were paused or cancelled and they still haven’t moved forward due to restrictions. So my purpose at the time needed a revisit and rehaul. I did a lot of reading regarding retirement and “purpose” in the last year and took a couple of on line courses which were quite helpful. The title of this book had an immediate appeal especially the part around purpose.

This book had some good information including personal stories but unfortunately for me much was not new and there were not many ahah moments. That said there is certainly some very helpful information for those contemplating a change, retirement etc and have not done the research with respect to what’s next?

I was hoping for a summary of each chapter with thought provoking questions that someone could journal to. Yes there are questions peppered throughout and summarized at the end but there would be benefit to have this at the end of each chapter.

It was not the enlightening book for me but as I said might be for someone else just embarking on what’s next.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Posted on Goodreads

Sent from my iPad

Richard J. Leider and David Shapiro’s “Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old?” is absolutely one of the best books on the subject of aging well. As a therapist, I will recommend it to all my older clients!

Richard J. Leider and David Shapiro’s “Who Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old?” is absolutely one of the best books on the subject of aging well. As a therapist, I will recommend it to all my older clients!

I did not finish this one. I found the tone to be condescending and off-putting; the writing to be choppy; and the advice a bit canned .