In my non-professional capacity as Rhetorical Question Answerer to the world, I'm going to say no. It is not time to panic about the swine flu yet, even if there have been cases confirmed in your state, even if someone coughed on you recently and oh how gross seriously. However, if you're tempted to panic anyway, it's probably not a good idea to read any of these books about flu, epidemics or pandemics. You've been warned:
Richard Preston, THE HOT ZONE. '90s bestseller about Ebola coming to kill us (via a researcher at the CDC who risked infection to research it). Honestly I'd be surprised if most of you haven't read this one already; it's a definite page-turner though.
Peter Moore, THE LITTLE BOOK OF PANDEMICS. Aww, how cute, a collection of information on lots of different terrible things that could happen to the world! Aren't you adorable.
Mike Davis, THE MONSTER AT OUR DOOR: THE GLOBAL THREAT OF AVIAN FLU. I respect Mike Davis' work, but the man might as well call all his books BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID. This is the most terrifying between the factory farms and the very detailed symptoms of the SARS that tried to kill us. He just wrote an essay for the Guardian about the very real dangers of swine flu -- sleep well!
Steven Johnson, THE GHOST MAP: THE STORY OF LONDON'S MOST TERRIFYING PANDEMIC AND HOW IT CHANGED SCIENCE, CITIES AND THE MODERN WORLD. Actually, I'm looking forward to picking this one up because I'm fascinated by what little I know about the cholera epidemic -- the well and the popular concept of infection and so on. Call me crazy if you must.
Stephen King, THE STAND. I haven't even read a little of this one but I hear it's about a superflu that wipes out most of the human race, so there you go. Of course, when it's King, you expect to be scared a little.
Norman F. Cantor, IN THE WAKE OF THE PLAGUE: THE BLACK DEATH AND THE WORLD IT MADE. Hey, if worst comes to worst, whoever survives can have a kick-ass Renaissance. Now there's something to look forward to... kind of.
21 hours ago
