Largely based on the strength of his previous book, I picked up Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map a few months back. Not realizing until after I got home that the book was about the spread of cholera (via water contaminated with infected fecal matter), I put it aside to read more relevant books… Heading to the UK last week for Develop in Brighton, I stuffed it in my bag to read on the flight…

Despite my original hesitation, The Ghost Map is a great read, covering a wide array of fascinating topics: from the more obvious medical and epidemiological aspects to economics, sociological and network theory, among others. Ultimately, the story comes across as a murder mystery on an epidemic scale, with Dr. John Snow as the primary investigator.

Two particularly interesting aspects of the story are how Snow struggles to (barely) overcome the ingrained medical theories of the time (eg, disease spreads via stinky air), and how Snow pioneered a sort of early data visualization to help solve the mystery.

(Tangential aside: In an odd way, on a meta level this plays into my previous post on “celebrity”. Not knowing anything about the book, I bought it solely on the strength of the author and positive past experiences with his work. In the end, I enjoyed the book immensely. Would the same have happened if books simply had the name of publishers plastered on the front?)