Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson looks forward to losing himself in an epic
mystery each evening. He鈥檚 just finished the works of Patrick O鈥橞rian. 鈥淚 enjoy
living at sea with him in the early 19th century. But I only join him between
the hours of 10 and 11 at night.鈥� Wilson also enjoys the novels of Jonathan
Kellerman and John Dunning, both of whom 鈥渉ave the special quality of being
experts in their particular fields鈥濃�擪ellerman in psychology and mental
institutions, Dunning in rare books.
Most of Wilson鈥檚 recent academic reading has been research for his new book,
Future Life, a study of the crisis in global biodiversity and the
response of the conservation movement. He describes it as 鈥渁 call to arms, but
not a disaster report鈥�. Among the books he鈥檚 consulted are Pillar of
Sand by Sandra Postel (Norton, 1999), an analysis of the world鈥檚 water
supplies. Wilson reckons their decline is our most critical medium-term
environmental problem.