The books I carried

Jan 16, 2013

I went for my daily walk through the medical center yesterday: first into the new Trent Semans Center for Health Education, where I sat for a few minutes to read from Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic and then over to Bostock Library to retrieve Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus.

Spillover is the new book by science writer David Quammen. He’ll be a speaker at ScienceOnline2013, and his book is one of those to be featured in the big book giveaway. Another title on that list is A Planet of Viruses, by Carl Zimmer. I’m reading that e-book on my iPad.

As I was walking back through the Duke Medicine concourse, holding those two books and my iPad, I stopped to talk with Zubin Eapen, a cardiologist and digital native. He remarked that it was good to see me carrying books. That was nice validation for my lifelong habit of always having reading material at hand, or in hand.

One of the fun aspects of the ScienceOnline community is learning about what others are reading, or writing, or blogging about their reading and writing. I can’t wait to see the joy on the faces as their hands reach out for new books to read. (Kudos to Karyn for organizing such a great collection.)

Anton Zuiker ☄