The Harvard College Observatory took a leading role in the nation’s astronomical research not long after it was founded in 1839. That was in large part thanks to a cadre of women hired to tally up and examine the stars they saw in photos of the night sky made through the telescope. In the end, these “assistants’’ changed astronomy, as best-selling writer Dava Sobel recounts in her new book, “The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars.’’
BOOKS: What are you reading currently?
SOBEL: I’m reading two books, three if you count the one on tape in the car. I’m reading and loving “The Hidden Life of Trees’’ by Peter Wohlleben. One of the comments on the book says that you’ll never look at trees the same way, and that’s true. I also have the new Mary Oliver book of essays, “Upstream.’’ I like her poems a lot and had heard this was really good.
BOOKS: What are you listening to?
SOBEL: “The Gene’’ by Siddhartha Mukherjee. He has the patience and knowledge to go through the whole saga with Mendel and Darwin and so on. I took the actual book out of the library because there are places where you are listening, and some things go by too quickly.
BOOKS: Do you turn it on when you are in the car for a long drive?
SOBEL: Even if it’s 5 or 10 minutes I get a little taste. I’ve been listening to books on tape for years. It’s a great way to read, but it depends on the voice of the reader. Sometimes I start something, and I can’t bear the way it’s read and turn it off.
BOOKS: Do you have an all-time audiobook favorite?
SOBEL: Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey-Maturin historical novels. The same person reads them all. He could do all the accents, English, Irish. Whatever it was, they were just delicious.
BOOKS: Do you find any type of book is better to listen to than others?
SOBEL: Not necessarily. Sometimes I listen to novels. A friend of mine was taking a course in E.M. Forster and was going on and on about him, so I thought I would reread “A Room With a View.’’ That was another brilliant voice and interpretation.
BOOKS: How often do you read fiction?
SOBEL: I’m very heavily weighted toward nonfiction, and mostly toward science. There was a period when I read many more novels than I do now, when I would read new novels that came out. I never do that anymore. Being a slow reader, having so many choices, I definitely go more toward nonfiction.
BOOKS: Was there a book or author who influenced you early on?
SOBEL: Carl Sagan. He was so intent on making science available to people. He felt scientists had a duty to inform the public about what they were doing, and he was uniquely skilled to do that. Not every scientist is.
BOOKS: Is there a science book you wish was more widely read?
SOBEL: I really like E.O. Wilson’s autobiography “Naturalist.’’ It is so informative because people have such stereotypes of scientists. It’s nice to see how that kind of life gets shaped.
BOOKS: What was the most challenging science book you have read?
SOBEL: Copernicus’s “On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres.’’ That is one tough book to read, let me tell you. It about killed me, but I did get through it.
BOOKS: If you were to read nonfiction that isn’t science, where would you turn?
SOBEL: Biography. I recently read Gloria Steinem’s “My Life on the Road,’’ which I loved. My goodness I lived through all this stuff, and I wasn’t paying as much attention as I thought. She spoke at Smith College while I was a writer-in-residence there. She’s so unpretentious and so available. To think she’s 82. To think she was a Playboy bunny.
BOOKS: Have you found your tastes have changed over time?
SOBEL: Sure. A lot of writing is much more graphic than it used to be. I’m not really a fan of that. Not that I’m a prude, but I want to read something that makes me want to escape to it rather than recoil from it.
AMY SUTHERLAND
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