Renew your metaphors at the Festival of the Book

I can’t even remember where or how I first heard of Archy and Mehitabel, the delightful creations of newspaperman Don Marquis. I was very young at the time, too young, I think, even to realize that the pieces were already 30 years out of date when I came across them. But I remember the spunky cockroach and tenacious alley cat quite well.

So when I saw that Michael Sims, author of Apollo’s Fire, listed The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel among his credits, I thought, Now this will be interesting. If this man possesses the erudition to shed light on Archy, what might he do with a mere day in the life of Planet Earth?

So far I’ve been very pleased with the book. I do love science, but Apollo’s Fire is not your typical work of popular science. It weaves history, art, memoir, poetry, and myth along with science to create something unique. Science is not slighted in this approach, it’s blended into the narrative in a way that keeps the reader engaged and surprised.

Some people never read fiction; others read almost nothing else. I read about equal parts fiction and nonfiction. As a writer I particularly enjoyed an anecdote in the introduction to Apollo’s Fire about Samuel Taylor Coleridge, explaining that Coleridge attended science lectures in order to “renew his stock of metaphors.” Perhaps that’s why fiction writers should read science books like Apollo’s Fire. And maybe that’s also a good reason to attend the Science Writing session at the Book Festival!

Related links:

• Michael Sims’ site
• Q & A with Michael Sims
• Audio clips