# A Pandemic Reading List **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [April 21, 2020, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237 "2020-04-21T00:35:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/1 "2020-04-21T00:35:12Z")
Im rereading And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts. This book is so much more powerful now. People intentially ignoring warnings to not engage in risky sex. Researchers baffled, Doctors helpless to save their patients. Next up two by Laurie Garrett. The Coming Plague and Betrayal of Trust. What other books belong on this list? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/2 "2020-04-21T00:51:55Z")
Daniel Defoe, _Journal of the Plague Year_, an account of the plague in London in 1665. It’s all there : people not believing the initial reports; people minimizing the steps needed; quacks selling nostrums; people starting to avoid each other; overreactions by the authorities and by people (sometimes going so far as to nail plague houses shut so everyone in them dies); people fleeing to the countryside where the air is supposedly healthier; people in the countryside blocking access to townsfolk coming; mortality counts every day; concerns about burying all the dead; the plague gradually dying off (ha!) and people starting to mingle more, hesitantly at first, then with greater confidence by the end of the year. > **[A Journal of the Plague Year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Journal_of_the_Plague_Year)** > > A Journal of the Plague Year: Being Observations or Memorials, Of the most Remarkable Occurrences, As well Publick as Private, which happened in London During the last Great Visitation In 1665, commonly called A Journal of the Plague Year, is a book by Daniel Defoe, first published in March 1722. It is an account of one man's experiences of the year 1665, in which the bubonic plague struck the city of London in what became known as the Great Plague of London, the last epidemic of plague in tha... ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/3 "2020-04-21T00:52:53Z")
[Polio: An American Story](https://www.amazon.com/Polio-American-David-M-Oshinsky/dp/0195307143) was an excellent read. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/4 "2020-04-21T00:58:08Z")
Mrs Piper recommends «Mrs Dalloway» by Virginia Woolf. See the article in the New Yorker: «Why Anxious Readers under Quarantine turn to ‘Mrs Dalloway’». > **[Why Anxious Readers Under Quarantine Turn to “Mrs. Dalloway”](https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-anxious-readers-under-quarantine-turn-to-virginia-woolfs-mrs-dalloway)** > > Virginia Woolf understood as well as anyone the long-term effects that viruses could wreak on bodies, and on societies. ---
**Author:** ![Sassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassy)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/5 "2020-04-23T16:20:05Z")
[https://subterraneanpress.com/kingdom-of-needle-and-bone-free-ebook](https://subterraneanpress.com/kingdom-of-needle-and-bone-free-ebook) Mira Grant’s Kingdom of Needle and Bone free today (4/23) as an ebook from Subterranean Press ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/6 "2020-04-23T16:24:55Z")
Thank you all for the recs thus far. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/7 "2020-04-23T16:40:18Z")
John Barry’s [The Great Influenza](https://www.amazon.com/Great-Influenza-Deadliest-Pandemic-History/dp/0143036491) is a really good read about the Spanish Flu. ---
**Author:** ![CatastrophicFailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@CatastrophicFailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatastrophicFailure)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/8 "2020-04-23T17:03:05Z")
\*The Plague \* by Albert Camus is a classic. In a different direction, I found reading \* The Last Policeman\* trilogy by Ben H. Winters to be cathartic during this. It’s set in a pre-apocalypse world. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/9 "2020-04-23T17:21:33Z")
flu by gina kolata the great influenza by john barry spillover by david quamen h10n1 by mr Cornelius ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/10 "2020-04-23T17:49:55Z")
> **[Dark Biology Series](https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Biology-Series-4-book-series/dp/B0855SFYP9)** > > Visit Amazon's Dark Biology Series Page and shop for all Dark Biology Series books. Check out pictures, author information, and reviews of Dark Biology Series The 4 volume Dark Biology series by Richard Preston. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/11 "2020-04-23T21:14:42Z")
_Station Eleven_ by Emily St. John Mandel, which I read last winter. Another book about a fictional pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/12 "2020-04-23T22:40:42Z")
And the Band Played On is a book I read over and over. There were countless things done _wrong_ throughout the entire AIDS epidemic, and the suffering and loss of life should be grieved by everyone…forever. The Great Influenza, mentioned by others upthread is a gripping dose of reality, especially now. The intersection of the Spanish Flu with World War I illustrated how a mobile population can rapidly spread infection. Spitting Blood by Helen Bynum, is about the history of tuberculosis. TB is a bacterial disease treated nowdays with antibiotics. But it once was prevalent, deadly, and communicable. For a dose of humor, both lighthearted and dark, The Plague and I by Betty MacDonald. All of her books are like old friends that you revisit occasionally. But _Plague_ is about her diagnosis of tuberculosis and time spent in a sanitarium. All these books are available in Kindle format. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/13 "2020-04-24T01:19:29Z")
For a science-fictional take on a pandemic, _Blood Music_ by Greg Bear. A scientist, faced with cancellation of his project to build simple biological computers out of blood cells, steals the project by injecting them into his own veins. They multiply and evolve and become more complex. One day he discovers that the remote descendants of his project’s cells are intelligent and talking to him. And then it gets weird. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/14 "2020-04-24T04:14:16Z")
_Year of Wonders_ by Geraldine Brooks, about a plague village in 1666. It’s very well written, although the protagonist is a bit of a Mary-Sue, which I wouldn’t expect from this usually top-notch author. I’m about a third through _The Great Believers_ by Rebecca Makkai, partly set around the beginning of the AIDS pandemic in 1980’s Chicago. Again, beautifully written, so far nothing too terrible has happened to the characters, but the chips are about to fall. I really liked Makkai’s first novel _The Borrower_, so I’m pleased she’s had some success with this one (Pulitzer nom, among others). ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/15 "2020-04-24T04:49:33Z")
> **[Amazon.com: Influenza: The Hundred-Year Hunt to Cure the 1918 Spanish Flu...](https://www.amazon.com/Influenza-Hundred-Deadliest-Disease-History-ebook/dp/B078M56BNB)** > > Buy Influenza: The Hundred-Year Hunt to Cure the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic: Read Books Reviews - Amazon.com Influenza: The 100 Year Hunt to Cure the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic is on sale for $2.99 at Amazon for Kindle ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/16 "2020-04-24T05:43:56Z")
One point was especially memorable in The Great Influenza… Some doctors got the idea to take blood from recovered patients, spin it with a centrifuge to separate out the red blood cells, then inject the plasma into the sickest patients. It worked, the patients improved…for a while. Then the symptoms would reoccur, and the patients would be at Death’s door again. Plasma treatments were only _temporary_, and there wasn’t an unlimited supply of recovered patients who could donate. So I’m somewhat skeptical when I hear of “plasma recoveries” now. I can’t help but wonder if the treatment will prove to be temporary. ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/17 "2020-04-24T08:42:27Z")
I recently pulled out Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake” again. It’s set in the future, only it was the future of the early noughties so everyone uses CD-ROMs and emails their friends, while GM animals are further along than we are now. Don’t recommend this book to the conspiracy types, because it’s a typical Margaret Atwood dystopia. The pandemic was made in a lab, meant to destroy mankind. But it’s a great read, exciting and sad, it keeps you on the edge of your seat. You race through it. Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/18 "2020-04-24T09:47:11Z")
"The Plague, Albert Camus “The Road”, Cormack McCarthy “On the Beach”, Neville Shute “Waiting for the Barbarians”, J M Coetzee ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/19 "2020-04-24T09:50:39Z")
I’m going to recommend something a little different, but very relevant to the time. It’s called _Bad Advice: Or Why Celebrities, Politicians, and Activists Aren’t Your Best Source of Health Information_ by Paul Offit. Offit has written a number of books on medicine for the general public, and in particular, a number on vaccination (he’s not only pro, he developed the current rotavirus vaccine). He’s a scientist who can make science both understandable and interesting for lay people. He’s not quite Stephen Jay Gould, but he is in that ballpark. His books are all fascinating. I am currently reading _Bad Advice_ myself right now, and I have read nearly all his books-- the only ones I have not read are the ones released in the last two years or so. Another excellent, older book by Offit is _Vaccinated_, which is partly a biography of Maurice Hilleman, the man responsible for nearly all of the current childhood vaccines currently used. It’s his personal story, but it is also a detailed discussion of how all the vaccines were developed. It doesn’t spare details, so if you don’t want to read about animal experimentation, it’s not for you, but I am generally squeamish about that stuff, and I loved this book. You’ll understand why vaccines take so long to develop-- basically, you can’t speed up a rat’s reproductive cycle, nor the incubation time of the virus itself, and you have to go through several life cycles of the disease causing agent, and your experimental subjects, so you sometimes just have to wait. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237/20 "2020-04-24T12:55:31Z")
[The Stand](https://www.amazon.com/Stand-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B001C4NXKM) by Stephan King is a good long read about a flue virus that kills 99.9% of the population. It’s good Stephan King writing while in his prime. I was looking forward to the new mini series on CBS All Access but they canceled it until the fall because it was deemed to dark to show in the middle of a pandemic. The book is so much better than the four part series with Molly Ringwald because it goes into a lot more detail about what would happen during a extiction level pandemic. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pandemic-reading-list/852237.md?page=2)