In the spirit of Schott's Miscellany comes an eye-opening and entertaining look at the truth behind kicking the bucket, the definitive A to Z illustrated sourcebook on the way we die. To die, kick the bucket, to meet your Maker, dead as a doornail, get whacked, smoked, bite the dust, sleep with the fishes, go six feet under, whatever death is called, it's going to happen. But how do we die? It's the enormous variety of HOW that enlivens FINAL EXITS. According to death certificates, in the year 1700 there were less than 100 causes of death. Today there are 3,000 and with each advance of technology, people find new ways to become deceased, often causing trends that peak in the first year. People are now killed by everything, from cell phones, washing machines, lawn mowers and toothpicks, to the boundless catalogue of man-made medicines. In FINAL EXITS the causes of death, bizarre or common, are alphabetically arranged and include actual accounts of people, both famous and ordinary, who unfortunately died that way. Illustrated with medical and historical illustrations and art from throughout the ages, FINAL EXITS is more than a trivia book, it is a portrait in words and numbers of human fate.