I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong

★★★★★

I'm a big fan of Ed Yong (for his reporting on COVID-19, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting), and I picked up this book just to read more of his work.

The topic is fascinating. I have heard of probiotics and the gut bacteria that may be linked to everything from food allergies to Parkinson's Disease. I feel like every person who pushes probiotics should have to read this book. It presents a sweeping history of microbes and discusses both the bacteria that live in and on other animals as well as human microbiomes and the vast universe of microbes that live symbiotically all over and inside our bodies.

In accordance with the book's subtitle, I certainly did gain a much grander view of life. For me, the rest of the title seemed like a bit of a misdirection because I was expecting to read mostly about the bacteria inside of humans, but actually, a lot of the book covers all kinds of bacteria out in the world and in other animals. The way the information was presented made sense - Yong described the history of microbial discoveries and explained all the very many characteristics of bacteria as seen in other animals, and then applied that knowledge to better understand the research on bacteria that affect humans - but I have to admit, the book had a bit of a slow start for me; it was mostly when the subject turned to human microbiomes that I became hooked.

The footnotes were inconveniently located at the back of the book, instead of on the bottom of the page on which they are referenced, which made for a lot of flipping back and forth. While some footnotes simply listed a source, others provided additional context, or a "behind the scenes" anecdote, or just a fascinating or entertaining tidbit; I think it's worth the minor trouble of using a second bookmark to keep your place in the Notes section. (Incidentally, the footnotes in Chapter 3 in my edition were messed up, which made for a bit of confusion.)

I enjoyed the photos included towards the end of the book, but they were not printed in the order of reference in the book's text, which made for a less than ideal experience trying to match up photos with their corresponding section in the text.