Eric Roston is the author of The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat.A few days ago I asked him what he was reading. His reply:
Writers Read asked for book picks during the 30-hour span in which I absorbed John M. Barry's 500-page The Great Influenza, an epic synthesis of seven years of research. The writing is spare: He steps out of the way and lets the material tell the grisly tale of how 50 million to 100 million people succumbed to the inaptly named Spanish Flu in 1918-1919. I reported on the threat of a pandemic flu a couple of years ago, and the world's lack of preparedness on this front causes grave concern.Visit Eric Roston's website and blog.I read so much for work, it's difficult to say what or if I read for pleasure, though I've tried lately. John Hodgman's The Areas of My Experitse induced glee in a way few books have in recent memory (NB: Most books I read are closer in subject matter to Barry's account of the Black Death). I breezed through Watchmen, and enjoyed it, but also wish I'd read it when the world was shiny and new. Upon Sarah Palin's entrance to the national stage I reread Ionesco's Rhinoceros.
Most books relate somehow to science in general or specific writing projects. Nicholas Wade's Before the Dawn is a magnificent tour ofhistory, evolution, and the human genome. 2009 is 150th anniversary of The Origin of Species and the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. Wade's book is a great modern choice to keep beside Origin during events this year. Genomics news moves so quickly that Darwin's work and Wade's should be supplemented with a steady diet of journal articles, if you're into that kind of thing. (Worth noting that The Carbon Age is a book about evolution; carbon itself is something of a red herring.)
I'm in the middle of Steven Pinker's The Stuff of Thought. I enjoy his books, but have slowed down because I covered some of the material in grad school. Mark Lynas' Six Degrees is a brilliant synthesis of research and re-organization of climate predictions as the thermometer rises this century.
My nightstand bears the weight of Infinite Jest, at the urging of my brother. I bought it in hardcover when it came out in 1995 or so, and swore I'd burn it if I didn't finish reading it in a year. I didn't, but hope to blast through it in 2009. Otherwise, I'll burn it.
Other than that, I recently reactivated my Economist subscription. That's a commitment!
--Marshal Zeringue
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