What Do You Want to do Before You Die?

It all began in 2006 when four aimless young guys came up with a crazy idea — buy an old bus, fix it up, then drive around fulfilling their bucket lists while helping strangers to do to the same. Since then they’ve acquired a name, The Buried Life, and accomplished quite a bit, from riding bulls to helping to deliver a baby to becoming New York Times bestselling authors. Not to mention their show on MTV.

The book’s Youtube video will give you a flavor. The Buried Life website includes sneak peeks of anonymous answers to the title question.

The four guys who make up The Buried Life have been interviewed by show after show, newspaper after newspaper. MSNBC has posted their Today Show interview with Ann Curry, as well has an excerpt from the book.

For every book sold, part of the proceeds are donated to To Write Love in Her Arms, an organization that helps young people suffering from depression and anxiety.

THE BURIED LIFE. What Do you Want to Do Before You Die? 226p. illus. Artisan. 2012. Tr $19.95. ISBN 978-1-57965-476-4. LC 2011939318.  

Adult/High School–One day, four Canadian guys, collectively known as The Buried Life, decided to make a list of 100 things they wanted to do before they died. But more than that, they actually set out to do them. Six years later, they had accomplished ¾ of them, while touring around North America helping others check items off their bucket list too. Accomplishing this feat is exactly the kind of thing college students pontificate about in dorms but few act upon. The resulting book contains stories of how these young men ended up accomplishing some of the tasks–and not accomplishing others, such as “Streak a stadium and get away with it.” (The streaking happened but not the getting away with it.) The tales from the group are the strongest part of the book, which also includes some of the desires of people they met on their journeys. These desires are illustrated a la Frank Warren’s “PostSecret” books (William Morrow), and fans of those will probably find a similar affinity for this one. The illustrated desires are a combination of deep and whimsical, such as “I would like to help find a missing person” or “I want to say MEOW during a speech.” More than a few refer to drugs and drinking, not surprising considering the collegiate target audience. The book itself is slightly thin, but also slightly inspirational and full of conversation starters.–Jamie Watson, Baltimore County Public Library, MD