Julian Barnes has written a multitude of books and articles. He wrote the novel Arthur and George, which was made into a mini series recently shown on PBS. (It was about a true-life mystery solved by the author of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. ) But this book is about Barnes himself and his confessions about his fear of death. It’s quite a funny book as well as a mordantly serious one.It was named a New York Times Best Book of the Year, and it stuck a chord with many people, most of whom are destined to die themselves.