An interview with the best-selling author

When I was a kid, we had a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records. It’s one of the first books I remember reading aloud to others. Often they were eating and often I was recounting something disgusting. I couldn’t help it. I was riveted.

There aren’t many writers who can pull that off for us grown-ups. Obscure human feats, or the mysteries of human feet, often end up in academic journals, laden with jargon drowning out any hope of fascination.

But then there’s Mary Roach. The author of Packing for Mars, Stiff, Spook and Bonk, she writes books that evoke that same overwhelming need to interrupt the person sitting next to you and read them a passage … a couple pages … OK, maybe a whole chapter. And they’ll thank you for it.

Mary, a self-declared Book Person, recently sat down to answer a few questions for RIF’s Blog. Thank you, Mary.

What’s your first book memory?

I loved this peculiar book called The Man Who Lost His Head. He literally loses his head. Wakes up in the morning and it’s gone. He tries to replace it with a pumpkin and then a parsnip. (I can picture the drawing of a man in a suit with a parsnip for a head and a hat on top of the parsnip.) The parsnip is deemed “too conspicuous.” I clearly remember learning the word conspicuous. I recall reading other books when I was younger, but this one for some reason stayed with me in a very vivid way. Now that I think of it, it’s a very Mary Roach sort of book. At the time, I didn’t get the play on “losing one’s head.”

You’re giving a first-grader without any books a book of her very own to take home. What do you pick?

Cat in the Hat. You can’t start encouraging disobedience too soon.

You’re going on a beach vacation, do you grab an e-Reader or old-school book?

Old-school book

What’s your most bizarre book story?

Years ago my husband and I were looking at a house for sale in SF that had been staged. Stagers normally dress a home with pretty safe neutral stuff — Pottery Barn vases and fine art coffee table books. This stager had for some reason placed a copy of my book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers on one of the bedside tables. You really could lose a sale that way.

What’s your most treasured book at home?

Arithmetic, a novel by Todd McEwen. It belonged to my dear friend Eric, who died at age 40. At his memorial, his mother invited us all to take home one of his many wonderful books, to remember him by. Eric had introduced me to McEwen’s writing, and this was one I hadn’t read. It’s an amazing novel, and it will always remind me of Eric.

What’s being a Book Person mean to you?

Learning more — continuing to learn more — than I ever learned in college. Secretly wanting to leave dinner parties and sneak upstairs to read. The unique and unmatchable satisfaction of reading something beautifully written. Inspiration. Awe. Never having to worry about an excess of disposable income.

Follow Mary Roach on Twitter (@mary_roach) and visit her website to learn more about her books and how her early career involved elephant wart removal.

posted by Jay

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Tags: author, best-selling, Guiness Book, interview, Mary Roach