The 50 Year Dash The Feelings, Foibles, and Fears of Being Half a Century Old

The 50 Year Dashis a wonderful book of reflections on everything that's part of life at fifty: looking at aches and pains as a growth industry, and seeing the constant onslaught of new pain relievers as a new version of the British invasion of rock groups in the 1960s; finding that the world is no longer sufficiently quiet, and that you're the one yelling "Turn that down!"; realizing you're older than James Bond ever was; hearing yourself say, "The fruit plate looks good," and meaning it; understanding that the one thing that seems to be going away from you the fastest is that first-time feeling--first job, first house, first kiss--and knowing that the best thing you can do for yourself is to find ways to keep finding those feelings again and again. Between now and the year 2014, seventy-seven million American men and women--most of the baby boom generation--will turn fifty. That's about ten thousand birthdays per day.The 50 Year Dashis the perfect book for every single one of them.

Bob Greene is an award-winning journalist and a New York Times bestselling author whose books include Once Upon a Town and Duty. He has been the lead columnist for Life and Esquire, a contributing correspondent for ABC News Nightline, and a syndicated columnist for both the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune, where he worked for 24 years. His book Hang Time: Days and Dreams with Michael Jordan was a bestseller. In 1995, Greene was named Illinois Journalist of the Year, and he also won the Peter Lisagor Award for Public Service Journalism for his reporting on courts failing children in need.