I'm Not Done Yet: Keeping At It, Remaining Relevant, And Having The Time Of My Life - Hardcover

Koch, Edward I; Paisner, Daniel

9780688170752: I'm Not Done Yet: Keeping At It, Remaining Relevant, And Having The Time Of My Life

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688170757 ISBN 13: 9780688170752

Publisher: William Morrow, 1999

I'm Not Done Yet! is a lively primer on remaining relevant into the so-called retirement years. Ed Koch, the colorful three-term mayor of New York City and now a noted television and radio personality, columnist, and commentator, offers anecdotal evidence to suggest that the healthiest outlook on advancing age is to keep active at the work you love.

Koch reflects on life after politics and life after turning seventy. The book takes readers through the author's various career turns since losing the Democratic mayoral primary to David Dinkins in 1989, with occasional looks back at related experiences and childhood memories. Included are discussions of the up and downturns of what Koch refers to as the third act of his varied career, and a frank account of his recent medical history.

Published to coincide with Koch's seventy-fifth birthday, I'm Not Done Yet! ends with the author's vision of his own obituary, reflecting on the life he has lived and the choices he has made. Here, for the first time, he speaks openly about what it has meant to live a life alone-without a partner, without children-and what it might mean in the years ahead.

By turns funny, candid, insightful, and unflinchingly honest, I'm Not Done Yet! is a fearless account of an extraordinary man's understanding of what it means to reach one's autumn years.

Koch reflects on life after politics and life after turning seventy. The book takes readers through the author's various career turns since losing the Democratic mayoral primary to David Dinkins in 1989, with occasional looks back at related experiences and childhood memories. Included are discussions of the up- and downturns of what Koch refers to as the third act of his varied career, and a frank account of his recent medical history.

By turns funny, candid, insightful, and unflinchingly honest, I'm Not Done Yet! is a fearless account of an extraordinary man's understanding of what it means to reach one's autumn years.I'm Not Done Yet! is a lively primer on remaining relevant into the so-called retirement years. Ed Koch, the colorful three-term mayor of New York City and now a noted television and radio personality, columnist, and commentator, offers anecdotal evidence to suggest that the healthiest outlook on advancing age is to keep active at the work you love.

Koch reflects on life after politics and life after turning seventy. The book takes readers through the author's various career turns since losing the Democratic mayoral primary to David Dinkins in 1989, with occasional looks back at related experiences and childhood memories. Included are discussions of the up- and downturns of what Koch refers to as the third act of his varied career, and a frank account of his recent medical history.

By turns funny, candid, insightful, and unflinchingly honest, I'm Not Done Yet! is a fearless account of an extraordinary man's understanding of what it means to reach one's autumn years.

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Review:

At 75 years old, former New York City mayor Ed Koch is as busy as ever. "I currently have nine jobs," he exults in I'm Not Done Yet! "I've had more, and one day, no doubt, I'll have fewer. But I believe the turns in my professional life reveal an important point: Your career is what you make of it, not what it makes of you." Since leaving city hall, Koch has worked as (among other things) a radio talk-show host, a newspaper columnist, a college instructor, a SlimFast spokesman, and an arbitrator for TV's People's Court. To this day, the city's leaders turn to him for counsel. "I am still relevant," Koch notes. "My opinions count. Even my political adversaries seek my advice, and appear to consider it carefully, and this is enormously gratifying to me--with each passing year, even more so." But the most important thing, in his mind, is that he's kept active doing things he loves to do--an opportunity that he insists is available to everyone as they grow older.

It hasn't been all roses, though: Koch writes with perfect candor about the health problems that have plagued him in his later years, including an enlarged prostate (which leads to some potentially embarrassing revelations that Koch turns into humorous anecdotes) and a heart attack. He also talks about the potential costs in the future of his lifelong bachelorhood--no children and no life partner to comfort him in his final years (and no desire to seek a partner out: "I don't believe it was meant to be, and I'm not seeking for it to happen"). Even that bit of gloom, though, can't stop I'm Not Done Yet! from being one of the most cheerful accounts of "life after politics" a public figure has to offer.

About the Author:

Edward Irving Koch (1924-2013) served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989. He was a lawyer, professor, public speaker, newspaper columnist, syndicated movie reviewer, television and radio personality, and author of twelve books.

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