Rabid by Bill Wasik

Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus by Bill Wasik
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First of all, if any animal bites you, go directly to the doctor to get a rabies vaccine. Also, if you wake up in room with a bat, even if you have no evidence it bit you. Or die.

There appears to be a limited amount of things that you can learn about rabies such as how to prevent it, how to treat it in its earliest stages, what death from rabies looks like, and new research in how to potentially treat it in its later deadly stages. All that scientific information would fill one or two chapters. The other chapters are historical entertainment. The book covers the earliest mentions of rabies in Roman times up to current flair ups in places like Bali. The book also engages in numerous tangents about the animals that transmit rabies: dogs, wolves, bats, skunks, and raccoons. And even more tangents about literature and movies about rabies, vampires, werewolves, and zombies because the author must have been trying to reach a particular word count. It's interesting though and it's fun. It's not especially educational but not all nonfiction books are I guess.

View all my reviews