鈥淛ust delicious, great celebrations of life. A tonic for a really bad-tempered person like me,鈥� says writer Jenny Diski of Stephen Jay Gould鈥檚 essays. Diski based one of her novels 鈥� Monkey鈥檚 Uncle 鈥� on an essay of Gould鈥檚, she says. She has just bought I Have Landed (Vintage) and notes sadly that this is Gould鈥檚 final collection. In theory the book is for her holiday, but she says she won鈥檛 be able to resist reading it that long.
She鈥檚 just finished Wittgenstein鈥檚 Poker: The story of a ten minute argument between two great philosophers by David Edmonds and John Eidinow (Faber, 2002). It鈥檚 鈥渁 clever hook and a witty summary [of] two opposing and irascible thinkers鈥�: Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper.
Time of Death by Jessica Snyder Sachs (Arrow) is Diski鈥檚 current read. It鈥檚 a review of forensic ecology, supposedly for research purposes (for a book rather than planning a murder) she says, but actually because 鈥淚鈥檓 a ghoul.鈥�
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