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A review by jenbsbooks
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen
4.0
This book came on my radar when I picked up a physical copy at a library sale. I grab books at great prices for my Little Free Library - but I check ratings/reviews and set some aside to read before I release them. This was added to my list, although I was a bit intimidated by the size and the material (and the cover ... scary!) As I was attempting a "Non-Fiction November" I added it to my list. The audio was an Audible exclusive, so I had picked it up during a sale, and I snagged the Kindle copy from the library. I had this in all three formats.
General impressions - this was heavy, scientific and I'm not sure how much I'll really remember in detail, but it kept my interest and I felt like I learned a lot along the way. Very interesting to hear some of the history, explanations, theories and predictions (as this was written pre-covid, but I read it post-covid ... the next human pandemic as the title intimated).
This had nine sections, 1. Pale Horse 2. Thirteen Gorillas 3. Everything Comes From Somewhere 4. Dinner at the Rat Farm 5. The Deer, The Parrot and the Kid Next Door 6. Going Viral 7. Celestial Hosts 8. The Chimp and the River 9. It Depends ... multiple chapters within each (115 chapters in all). The physical copy had a Table of Contents, showing just the nine sections, thankfully the Kindle and audio linked all chapters. I went primarily with audio, but used the Kindle app to play, so that I could stop and have the text right there (for highlights, notes, review). At one point a read a few chapters on my own.
So many words that are not as common/unknown to me, or ones I notice and mark: preternaturally, concatenation, pogrom, deign, rifled, halcyon, scrum ... a mention of bonobo monkeys (Come From Away). Uncommon/Unknown words (and I didn't get them all!) ... temerarious, prelapsarian, concomitant, recrudesce, sedulously, pusillanimity, debouched, liquescent, teleological, salubrious, limned. And that's not even including any of the more medical terms. Another serendipity ... I played the NYT Strands game on Wednesday/Nov13 and "Bipedal" was the Spanagram, and I thought the other words were poorly chosen ... on being "pangolin" ... I remember it was the last word I had to find, so I just had to put the letters in the right order and still I struggled! Pangolin? What is that? I've NEVER heard of that animal. Then later that day, reading this book ... there it was. Really??? Crazy coincidence! I did a Kindle search and the word had been said once earlier in the book, but I hadn't registered it. Many other animals I hadn't heard of before (muntjac, civets,etc). Many names I wouldn't have known how to pronounce (kudos to the audiobook narrator) ... of people, places and scientific labels.
Discussing so many different diseases, viruses, bacterium ... while I remember the H1N1 scare, it didn't really impact me (I recall a college friend posting that they stood in long lines to get the new immunizations). My brother and another FB friend have struggled with Lyme disease (discussed in one section). I'm trying to remember if SARS in 2003 was something that was feared where we were at.
Much of it was presented as historical, research. Some chapters were first person with the author traveling and experiencing close contact, interviewing others, etc. At times very medical, and completely conversational in other portions. There was one section, talking hypothetically about "The Cut Man" and "The Voyager" which ... felt more like a novel. I guess of what might have happened, but then it went into such storytelling detail. I wasn't sure about that ...
Super interesting to pay particular attention to the predictions of "The Next Big One" which has now happened, and it was a big one. Which I did know "of" some people who died, and some close family was affected long term with lost of taste/smell, Covid really didn't hit us hard personally. Coronavirus was mentioned as one of the possibilities for the next big one.
It would be interesting to have a follow up post-Covid addressing it in connection to this book.
General impressions - this was heavy, scientific and I'm not sure how much I'll really remember in detail, but it kept my interest and I felt like I learned a lot along the way. Very interesting to hear some of the history, explanations, theories and predictions (as this was written pre-covid, but I read it post-covid ... the next human pandemic as the title intimated).
This had nine sections, 1. Pale Horse 2. Thirteen Gorillas 3. Everything Comes From Somewhere 4. Dinner at the Rat Farm 5. The Deer, The Parrot and the Kid Next Door 6. Going Viral 7. Celestial Hosts 8. The Chimp and the River 9. It Depends ... multiple chapters within each (115 chapters in all). The physical copy had a Table of Contents, showing just the nine sections, thankfully the Kindle and audio linked all chapters. I went primarily with audio, but used the Kindle app to play, so that I could stop and have the text right there (for highlights, notes, review). At one point a read a few chapters on my own.
So many words that are not as common/unknown to me, or ones I notice and mark: preternaturally, concatenation, pogrom, deign, rifled, halcyon, scrum ... a mention of bonobo monkeys (Come From Away). Uncommon/Unknown words (and I didn't get them all!) ... temerarious, prelapsarian, concomitant, recrudesce, sedulously, pusillanimity, debouched, liquescent, teleological, salubrious, limned. And that's not even including any of the more medical terms. Another serendipity ... I played the NYT Strands game on Wednesday/Nov13 and "Bipedal" was the Spanagram, and I thought the other words were poorly chosen ... on being "pangolin" ... I remember it was the last word I had to find, so I just had to put the letters in the right order and still I struggled! Pangolin? What is that? I've NEVER heard of that animal. Then later that day, reading this book ... there it was. Really??? Crazy coincidence! I did a Kindle search and the word had been said once earlier in the book, but I hadn't registered it. Many other animals I hadn't heard of before (muntjac, civets,etc). Many names I wouldn't have known how to pronounce (kudos to the audiobook narrator) ... of people, places and scientific labels.
Discussing so many different diseases, viruses, bacterium ... while I remember the H1N1 scare, it didn't really impact me (I recall a college friend posting that they stood in long lines to get the new immunizations). My brother and another FB friend have struggled with Lyme disease (discussed in one section). I'm trying to remember if SARS in 2003 was something that was feared where we were at.
Much of it was presented as historical, research. Some chapters were first person with the author traveling and experiencing close contact, interviewing others, etc. At times very medical, and completely conversational in other portions. There was one section, talking hypothetically about "The Cut Man" and "The Voyager" which ... felt more like a novel. I guess of what might have happened, but then it went into such storytelling detail. I wasn't sure about that ...
Super interesting to pay particular attention to the predictions of "The Next Big One" which has now happened, and it was a big one. Which I did know "of" some people who died, and some close family was affected long term with lost of taste/smell, Covid really didn't hit us hard personally. Coronavirus was mentioned as one of the possibilities for the next big one.
It would be interesting to have a follow up post-Covid addressing it in connection to this book.