Genealogists aren't the only ones with an interest in obituaries. Obituary pages are actually a top priority for many newspaper readers. What is the reason for the obssession? What do people find so fascinating about these stories of death?

In The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries (2006), Marilyn Johnson attempts to answer some of these question as she takes readers on a journey into the art and culture of obituary writing. The book is not a collection of strange obituaries, as you might expect from the title. Instead it focuses on the men and women who write obituaries, and the changes in obituary writing throughout history. Did you know, for example, that there is a Great Obituary Writers' International Conference? She demonstrates how obituaries serve not only as a window into the life of the deceased, but also into the patterns of life. She finds many cases where people seem to die in sets - for example, the voice of the man who portrayed Piglet died within a day of the man whose voice portrayed Winnie the Pooh. She also covers various obituary styles, including the differences between the American form and the English form.

I found The Dead Beat a witty, engaging book although not what I first expected. But if you're a lover of history and writing, and find the obituary page fascinating for the stories it tells about the people around us, then you'll probably enjoy it too.