Before I Die by Candy Chang | Book Review

Before I Die would be a fantastic coffee table book.  It would work great at a doctor's office or other waiting area.  It'd be great to peruse casually at a coffee shop.  Not so great for actual information or for a straight read-through.

Before I Die is a cool concept:  chalkboard walls set up in many cities the world over with the prompt "Before I die I want to_____."  Most seem to be in English, but there are many different languages represented also.  Almost all of them seem to be temporary.  They seem to be well-maintained by their creators, and people seem to "behave" rather well about not being cruel in their statements.

What I wished for was more pictures of the walls; more examples of submissions.  Some of the featured walls were in other languages, and Candy Chang only bothered to handpick 2-3 submissions to translate and print in her book.  I just wanted much more.

PS: One of the ones that made me chuckle was from a wall at the Burning Man festival:  "Before I die I want to find my sleeping bag."  Silly hippie...  And one that struck me at the heart was "Before I die I want to meet my grandchildren."  (Written by a young mom pushing a baby in a stroller.)