17 Recommended Books to Gain Knowledge About Viruses

A few years ago, we all spent our days talking about viruses whether we wanted to or not. Now that the noise has died down, if we quietly face the existence of viruses once again, we realize that we didn't actually understand most of the terms that were flying around in the news at the time. What are emerging viruses? Why do they jump from animals to humans? Are viruses even alive in the first place? Questions that we didn't have the luxury of stopping to think about during those hectic times remain with us now in the form of books that we can read calmly.

This article was written for those who are not experts in medicine or biology—adults who only vaguely remember their high school biology classes, or those who have just passively listened to news commentary. I have listed books with varying levels of difficulty and perspectives, so feel free to start reading from anywhere. By the time you finish, you should be able to see that viruses are far stranger and richer entities than can be summed up by the single word "scary." I believe this will be a reading experience that takes you unexpectedly far, covering the history of infectious diseases, the definition of life, and even what is happening inside your own body.

Opening the Door to Virology

First, let's start with introductory books that can be read through without any prior knowledge. I have prioritized books that use diagrams, photographs, or lecture formats, rather than relying solely on text. Getting through any one of the books listed here will make the books in the later sections much easier to read.

"Understanding Infectious Diseases with Moyasimon" by Kentaro Iwata and Masayuki Ishikawa

This is an explanatory book by an unusual duo: Kentaro Iwata, an infectious disease specialist, and Masayuki Ishikawa, the author of the manga "Moyasimon," which features a protagonist who can see bacteria. Although it was originally intended for medical students and residents, the framework of the content is so solid that general readers will also come away with an understanding of the structure of infectious disease problems. Masayuki Ishikawa's illustrations are placed throughout the book, and the fact that bacteria and viruses appear in friendly forms also helps in turning the pages.

The highlight is that the author consistently maintains the perspective that "infectious diseases are determined by the relationship between the pathogen, the human, and the environment." It is not a book that makes you memorize the names and symptoms of viruses, but rather one that teaches you the order of thinking—how to consider the situation in front of you and what information to focus on. As you progress through topics like antibiotics, hospital-acquired infections, and vaccinations, you get the feeling that the knowledge you picked up from the news is falling into a single system. Technical terms are always accompanied by explanations, so you can follow along without skipping anything.

If you want to learn about viruses but are intimidated by thick, specialized books, this is the perfect first book for you. It is better suited for reading at a desk on a day off while looking at the illustrations than for reading bit by bit on a commuter train. Even if you don't work in the medical field, you will certainly gain knowledge that is useful for thinking about your family's health and workplace hygiene management.

"New Edition: Viruses and Humans" by Kazuya Yamanouchi

This is a compact overview by Kazuya Yamanouchi, who has long been a leader in Japanese virology. It is part of the Iwanami Science Library, making it easy to hold in terms of both format and length, yet it covers a surprisingly wide range of content. Published as a new edition with a chapter on the novel coronavirus added to the old one, it is structured so that you can read it as a single flow, from the history of virus discovery to modern infectious disease countermeasures.

What runs through this book is the perspective that "to a virus, humans are nothing more than insignificant beings." We tend to talk about viruses as if they were enemies targeting humanity, but the author gently dismantles that view. A vast number of viruses exist on Earth, and most of them exist independently of humans. Only a very small fraction bring disease to humans. When this fact is presented calmly, our frantic reaction to infectious diseases looks a little different. The calm writing style of someone who has been at the forefront of research for many years is pleasant, and there is nothing inflammatory about it at all.

This is the first book I would recommend to those who want to grasp the overall picture of viruses in a short time. You can use it as a map before reading other books, or come back to it to reorganize your knowledge after reading a few. It also functions as a starting point for moving on to the author's other works. It is the kind of book that, if you keep it on your bookshelf, you will find yourself reaching for whenever you encounter virus-related news.

"101 Virus Illustrations: Beautiful Electron Micrographs and Structural Diagrams" by Marilyn J. Roossinck

This is a book for "looking at" viruses rather than "reading" about them. The author, a specialist in plant virology, introduces 101 types of viruses by host—human, animal, plant, insect, fungus, and bacteria—placing electron micrographs and structural diagrams side by side. The geometric shapes of the particles that appear every time you open a page look more like crystals or crafts than living things, updating the vague image you might have had of viruses.

The first half provides a basic explanation of virology, carefully explaining concepts such as classification by replication mechanism—the so-called Baltimore classification—along with illustrations. In the second half, the encyclopedia section, the characteristics, history of discovery, relationship with the host, and distribution of each virus are organized on each spread. Next to familiar names like measles and polio, viruses that infect tomatoes and orchids, phages that infect bacteria, and even giant viruses are lined up. This arrangement itself eloquently speaks to the breadth of the existence of viruses.

This book is suitable for those who are not confident in reading through text-heavy books or those who want to become interested through visuals. It is also a fun book to flip through with children. Of course, adults can also gain a lot from reading it seriously, and it can also be used as a dictionary to check the appearance of a virus whose name only appeared while reading other books. It is the kind of book that you will find yourself reaching for if you leave it out on your desk.

"Kyoto University's Surprising Virology Lectures" by Takayuki Miyazawa

This is a new book (shinsho) compiled by Takayuki Miyazawa, who has been researching virology at Kyoto University, based on his liberal arts lectures at the university. It is written in a tone close to spoken language, so you can read it as if you were listening to a teacher in a classroom. Within the framework of a new book, a wide range of topics is packed in, from the threat of animal-derived viruses to the role viruses played in the evolution of mammals.

Particularly impressive is the chapter on retroviruses. Viral genetic information enters the host's genome and is passed down through generations. And some of it seems to have played an important role in the process by which mammals acquired the placenta—knowing this makes you realize the difficulty of simply positioning viruses as "enemies." Because the author is a researcher who has long dealt with animal viruses, the inclusion of specific stories from the research field is also a highlight.

I recommend this to those who want to get a feel for what kind of questions the discipline of virology deals with. It is easy to carry around in a new book size, making it suitable for reading bit by bit during commutes or travel. If you use this book as a starting point and compare it with what other experts have written, you should be able to gain a more three-dimensional understanding.

What is a virus? — Books that shake your view of life

From here on, I have collected books that face the fundamental question, "Are viruses alive?" This is the type of reading that shifts your perspective on the world rather than just increasing your knowledge. I believe the content will also reach those interested in the philosophical question of what life is.

"Are Viruses Alive?" by Hitoshi Nakayashiki

This is a Kodansha Science Publication Award-winning work by Hitoshi Nakayashiki, a molecular biologist at Kobe University who researches viruses in plants and fungi. Although the title is a definitive statement, the content is an open inquiry that explores the question "What does it mean to be alive?" together with the reader. In textbooks, viruses are generally not considered living organisms. However, the author demonstrates, by accumulating concrete research results, that this line is not as self-evident as one might think.

At the core of this book is the fact that a massive number of virus-derived sequences exist within our DNA, and some of them actually support life activities. The genes involved in the formation of the placenta are virus-derived. There are countless relationships between viruses and hosts that can only be described as being between infection and symbiosis. As you follow these stories, the boundary that was supposed to be drawn between viruses and living organisms quietly blurs. The writing possesses both the caution characteristic of a scientist and a passion for expression that goes beyond it, making it a high-quality read.

You can read it without prior knowledge of biology, but it is a book you will want to read while thinking carefully. I especially want those who are drawn to the question of "what is life," or those who have only ever viewed viruses as pathogens, to pick it up. After reading, your view of your own body might have changed a little.

"Semantics of Viruses" by Kazuya Yamanouchi

This is a book written by Kazuya Yamanouchi, who appeared earlier, as the culmination of his long research career. As the word "semantics" in the title suggests, it directly addresses the problem of how to describe and position viruses. It is a 46-sized book published by Misuzu Shobo, and while the content is more advanced than an introductory book, the writing is clear, and you can follow the logic without specialized knowledge.

What this book repeatedly discusses is the fact that when viruses are with their original hosts, they often act as "guardians." They provide the host with new abilities, protect the host from other pathogens, and are incorporated into the host's survival strategy. The perspective that viruses that cause disease are merely exceptional figures that appear when the relationship with the host has broken down for some reason is thoroughly maintained. Living and non-living, life and death, symbiosis and hostility—as you read through this book, these opposing concepts all lose their outlines.

I recommend this book to those who have read a few introductory books and want to go one step deeper. Although it has a fair number of pages, the topics change with each chapter, so you can read it little by little. For those who want to reorganize the framework of their thinking about viruses, or those interested in the philosophical aspects of life science, this should be a book you will want to keep on hand for a long time.

"A Planet of Viruses" by Carl Zimmer

This is a collection of short essays by American science writer Carl Zimmer. It is structured so that each piece takes up one type of virus and discusses its ecology and relationship with humans, with each chapter concluding in a few pages. Although the original book is thin, the range covered is surprisingly wide, appearing from the common cold rhinovirus to the countless phages drifting in the ocean, and even giant viruses.

The greatest shock this book brings is the sheer volume of viruses on the planet Earth. If you scoop up a drop of seawater, it contains a vast number of virus particles, and the material circulation of the marine ecosystem is supported by the destruction of bacteria by viruses. If you were to line up all the viruses on Earth, the length would be an unimaginable distance. These facts are presented one after another in Zimmer's elegant prose. A human-centric view of viruses does not apply here. You realize that the viruses we experience as diseases are just minor events located on the very edge of the virosphere of this planet.

Since each chapter is independent, it is a book that is easy to read even for those who cannot take a large amount of time. The translation is also easy to read, and I can recommend it to those who have a dislike for science books. I would like those who want to rethink viruses as a global existence, or those who want to get intellectual stimulation in a short time, to open it.

Why do new viruses appear?

Since the latter half of the 20th century, new viruses have appeared one after another in human society. In this section, I have lined up books that deal with why that phenomenon occurs and books that explain what is happening on the body's side. The content is suitable for those who want to understand it as an ongoing problem.

"The Century of Viruses" by Kazuya Yamanouchi

This is a book that focuses on what are called emerging viruses. Ebola, SARS, MERS, bird flu, and the novel coronavirus. Why have these begun to appear repeatedly from the latter half of the 20th century to the present? This is a book that attempts to answer that question from both the history of virology and an ecological perspective.

The answer the author provides is not simple. Increased opportunities for contact with wild animals due to forest development, intensification of livestock production, urbanization and population density, and changes in travel speed due to air networks—multiple factors are intertwined, and the conditions have been set for virus jumps, which would have ended as local events in the past, to develop into global epidemics. This mechanism is carefully explained while following actual epidemic cases. It is also written frankly about what was learned and what was not learned from responses to past pandemics, and there are many moments while reading where you will feel a sense of urgency.

I recommend this to those who want to place the experience of the novel coronavirus back into a larger context. The content is somewhat advanced, but if you have read the author's other works, you will be able to enter it without difficulty. For those who want to understand the term "next pandemic" not as a vague anxiety but as a concrete structure, this is a book that will become a solid footing.

Spillover by David Quammen

Spillover is a term that refers to a pathogen jumping from one species to another. American nature writer David Quammen traveled the world, from African forests to Asian markets, following this phenomenon, interviewing researchers and local people, and compiled it into a massive volume. The original book was published before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it gained renewed attention as the situations it warned about subsequently became reality.

The highlight is the overwhelming concreteness that comes from the author visiting the sites himself. The stables in Australia struck by the Hendra virus, researchers capturing bats in search of the source of Ebola, and the scenes of the markets that became the starting point for SARS. The chapter tracing the origins of the AIDS virus back to Africa a century ago has the tension of a detective novel in its own right. At the same time, the book repeatedly and quietly points out that these events are not mere bad luck, but the inevitable consequence of the pressure humans have been placing on the ecosystem.

Since it is a substantial book, I think it is best to pick it up when you have time to sit down and read it. It is genuinely interesting as non-fiction, so you should be able to read through it without having to prepare yourself for a science book. For those who want to think about the emergence of viruses as a problem on the human society side, or those interested in the connection between environmental issues and infectious diseases, it will undoubtedly be a powerful reading experience.

The 7 Mysteries of COVID-19 by Masayuki Miyasaka

This is a Blue Backs book in which immunologist Masayuki Miyasaka organizes questions surrounding the novel coronavirus into seven inquiries and explains them from the perspective of immunology. Although it was written in the midst of the pandemic, the core of the content is the universal mechanism of immunity, and it does not feel outdated even now. The division of roles between innate and acquired immunity, how antibodies are produced, and why some people develop severe symptoms while others do not—these basics are explained while showing concrete data.

I placed it in this section because infectious diseases cannot be understood by looking only at the virus side. Even when exposed to the same virus, some people develop symptoms while others do not. What creates that difference is the response on the side of our bodies. The book delves into the mechanisms of excessive reactions like cytokine storms and how vaccines train the immune system, and when you finish reading it, the phenomenon of 'infection' will look three-dimensional as a tug-of-war between the virus and the immune system. It is also reliable that the author clearly distinguishes between what is scientifically established and what is not.

I recommend this book to those who are aware that they use the word 'immunity' on a daily basis but cannot properly explain what it entails. True to the Blue Backs series, it is rich in illustrations and is useful whether you read it through or use it as a dictionary. For those who want to be able to judge the truth or falsehood of health information for themselves, it is a book that provides a solid foundation.

The History Driven by Infectious Diseases

Just by drawing a single auxiliary line called microorganisms, the landscape of world history changes surprisingly. In this section, I have collected books that approach viruses and pathogens from the side of history. It should also function as a passage for history lovers to enter the world of science.

Plagues and Peoples (Vol. 1) by William H. McNeill

This is a classic of infectious disease history published by historian William H. McNeill in the 1970s. He called the relationship between human society and microorganisms 'microparasitism' and the relationship between rulers and the ruled 'macroparasitism,' and presented an extremely original framework for interpreting the rise and fall of civilizations as an equilibrium of these two parasitic relationships. The first volume covers the period from 500 BC to around 1200 AD, and discusses the relationship between the establishment of ancient civilizations and epidemics.

The impact of this book lies in the fact that it introduced the factor of epidemics into turning points in history that had previously been explained by politics, economics, and ideology. The fact that smallpox was in the background of the collapse of the Aztec Empire by a small number of Spaniards. The fact that when a city exceeds a certain population size, it becomes a 'disease reservoir' that harbors infectious diseases as endemic diseases. The fact that differences in immunity held by groups translate directly into military superiority or inferiority. Since it is a work from nearly half a century ago, there are parts that have been revised by subsequent research, but its value as a framework for viewing things has not been lost at all.

If you are interested in history, you can read it through sufficiently even without knowledge of biology. Since it is divided into two volumes in paperback, you should be able to grasp the author's methodology even with just the first volume. I recommend it to those who want to look at world history from a new angle, or those who want to feel the weight of the phenomenon of infectious diseases on the scale of history.

Guns, Germs, and Steel (Vol. 1) by Jared Diamond

This is a global bestseller written to answer the question thrown at the author by a friend in New Guinea: 'Why was it that Europeans conquered the Americas, and not the other way around?' The author, who started in physiology and expanded his field to evolutionary biology and biogeography, depicts 13,000 years of human history in a grand composition. The first volume mainly deals with the start of food production and the problem of pathogens.

As indicated by the inclusion of 'Germs' in the title, the core of the book's argument is infectious diseases. In the Eurasian continent, many animals were domesticated, and as humans and livestock lived in close proximity, animal-derived pathogens became established in human society. As a result, the people of Eurasia acquired immunity to many infectious diseases as a group. When contact between continents occurred, this asymmetry of immunity brought about decisive results—this flow of argument is brilliant no matter how many times you read it. The stance of trying to explain history from differences in geographical conditions rather than the superiority or inferiority of races or cultures makes this book worth reading even today.

With an easy-to-read translation and the paperback version being easy to obtain, it is also suitable as a first major work in the social sciences. Although it is not a book that deals with viruses themselves, it is optimal for grasping the scale at which infectious diseases have defined human history. I would like those who want to peek behind the scenes of events that were in history textbooks to definitely open it.

A World History of Infectious Diseases by Hiroyuki Ishi

This is a book by Hiroyuki Ishi, who has long been active as an environmental journalist and a researcher of environmental issues. With a grand structure of tracing the relationship between humanity and microorganisms from the scale of the four-billion-year history of the Earth, he captures infectious diseases not as a medical problem, but as a phenomenon within the global environment and ecosystem. It has been released in paperback, making it easier to pick up, and has been widely read as an entrance to this theme.

The defining feature of this book is that it is backed by the author's experience of seeing the front lines around the world. It covers how deforestation creates new infectious diseases, the process by which global warming changes the distribution of vectors, and the structure by which urbanization and population movement accelerate epidemics. These topics are discussed alongside specific regional conditions in Africa and Asia. At the same time, chapters are devoted to individual infectious diseases such as influenza, AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, allowing readers to understand their respective histories and current status. When the author writes that "microbes are almost the only natural enemy of humanity," it is filled with the genuine feeling of someone who has looked at the entire ecosystem.

Since it is written in a way that does not require specialized scientific knowledge, it also functions as a great first book on this topic. Although I have placed it in the history section, it is also a book with many implications for those interested in environmental issues. I recommend it to those who want to grasp the connection between human activity and the emergence of infectious diseases from a broad perspective.

The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (New Edition) by A. W. Crosby

This is a foundational text in this field, written about the influenza that struck the world from 1918 to 1919—the so-called Spanish Flu. Why did this pandemic, which claimed at least 25 million lives and potentially tens of millions more, slip from people's memories? The subtitle, "The Forgotten Pandemic," encapsulates the author's critical awareness.

Crosby, a historian, persistently digs up records of this calamity, focusing on American society. He explores how troop transport during World War I spread the epidemic, how cities faced the collapse of their medical systems, and what decisions public health authorities made and where they failed. The overall picture of the pandemic emerges through a structure that alternates between macro statistics and micro descriptions, such as the state of a single soldier's sickbed. And the weightiest question is why an event that caused so many deaths failed to take root in the social memory.

As a full-scale history book exceeding 400 pages, it requires a certain level of commitment to read through. However, for those of us who have experienced recent pandemics, there are a surprising number of passages in this century-old account that feel like déjà vu. I want those who want to think about the phenomenon of oblivion itself, or those who want to learn about the relationship between public health and society from history, to sit down and engage with this book.

Feeling through the front lines and stories

Finally, here are books that touch on infectious diseases as human experiences, rather than as numbers or theories. Through nonfiction, literature, and medical philosophy, they illuminate the figure of humanity facing viruses from different angles. If you read them after gaining knowledge, they should resonate with a different kind of depth.

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

In 1989, a relative of the Ebola virus was discovered at a primate quarantine facility in Reston, a town near Washington, D.C.—this is a piece of nonfiction that depicts the battle surrounding Ebola hemorrhagic fever, centered on this actual event. At the time of its publication, it terrified many readers, including Stephen King, and has been read as a representative work of nonfiction in this field.

The writing style of this book is closer to a thriller than a scientific explanation. The description of the progression of a man infected with the virus in Kenya at the beginning is so intense that it is breathtaking to read. From there, the story shifts to the scientists at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and the people working on containment operations in protective suits. Even for readers without specialized knowledge, the tension of what the inside of a facility handling dangerous viruses is like, and what the people working there fear and rely on, is conveyed directly. While it has been pointed out that some descriptions were corrected by research after publication, its value as a work of documentary literature remains unshaken.

This is a book that can be read first as a piece of nonfiction rather than as a science book. I recommend it to those who want to have a nail-biting reading experience, or to those who want to know about the people on the front lines of infectious disease control.

The Plague by Albert Camus

In the Algerian port town of Oran, Dr. Rieux finds dead rats on the street. Before long, people begin to fall ill with an unknown fever, and the city is cut off from the outside world—this is a long novel by Camus published in 1947. It was released as a follow-up to The Stranger and was met with an explosive response. In recent years, it is also a work that has been reread all over the world by those who have experienced the spread of infectious diseases.

What this novel depicts is not the virus or bacteria itself, but how humans behave in a sealed-off city. A doctor who faithfully continues his daily duties, a journalist trying to leave the city, a priest who preaches the calamity as God's punishment, a man trying to profit secretly. The way people placed in extreme situations face absurdity in their own ways is piled up with restrained prose. It is said that Camus himself superimposed his experience under Nazi occupation onto this work, and the plague is clearly a metaphor for something. However, even without reading it that way, it is a novel that hits home as a story of a plague.

It is not a book for gaining scientific knowledge, but it was one I definitely wanted to include in this list. I think that if you read it after learning about viruses, you will be able to rethink the meaning of what we ourselves experienced a few years ago from a slightly detached perspective. It is a work suitable for reading slowly on a quiet night.

Infectious Diseases Do Not Exist by Kentaro Iwata

Despite the provocative title, this is not a book that denies the existence of infectious diseases. Kentaro Iwata, an infectious disease specialist, delves into the question of "what is illness" from the medical front lines in this work of medical philosophy. Influenza, lifestyle-related diseases, and cancer do not exist—when the author writes this, what is being questioned is the very nature of our perception of what we are doing when we say "there is an illness."

The author's point is that illness is not an object that just lies around in the natural world, but a concept that humans construct through the activities of testing and diagnosis. There are always errors in testing, diagnostic criteria are decided by people, and people in the same state can become patients or healthy individuals depending on different criteria. With this perspective, the meaning of the words "positive/negative" changes. If you have ever been swayed by reports on numerical values, there should be many scenes that ring a bell. Accepting the uncertainty of medicine and still facing the patient in front of you—the sincerity of this book lies there.

I chose this book because I thought it was suitable for concluding this list. This is because after learning a lot about viruses, it makes you think about how to use that knowledge and how to deal with certainty. Since it is a Shinsho (paperback), the volume is reasonable, and if you pick it up after reading any of the books mentioned so far, it should have an even deeper effect.

Conclusion

Looking back at the books I have listed here, what strikes me is the depth of the theme of viruses. From the beautiful geometry within a microscope to the plagues that have shaped world history, the philosophical questions surrounding the definition of life, and the lives of people in locked-down cities—there are not many subjects that allow you to travel so far from a single word.

Viruses are frightening. That is a fact. But at the same time, they are the most numerous entities on Earth, they reside within our genes, and they are something that has driven the evolution of life. I believe that continuing to think while accepting this ambiguity is what it means to learn about viruses. And the knowledge gained in this way should serve as a small support for making decisions with your own mind the next time something happens.

Where on this shelf would you like to pull a book from? If this article has helped you choose that first book, there is nothing that would make me happier.

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