Q&A with Sam Kean

Sam Kean is author of The New York Times best-sellers “The Disappearing Spoon” and “The Violinist’s Thumb.” Both books were also Amazon Top-5 science books of the year. He and his work has been featured on “Radiolab,” “All Things Considered” and “Fresh Air.” He lives in Washington, D.C.

What are the best books you’ve read recently?
I read “The Price of Altruism” not long ago, a wonderful book about some of the various attempts over the past century to find the biological origins of the human altruistic instinct. And I’ve become quite enamored of Richard Russo’s books recently—lovely little slice-of-life novels with some of the richest characters I’ve ever come across. And they’re quite funny, too!

What was your favorite book as a child?
I’ll probably never enjoy reading anything as much as I did the Childcraft Encyclopedias, an encyclopedia set intended for children. Instead of arranging topics alphabetically, Childcraft grouped them by themes, and I must have read the books on Puzzles & Games and Myths & Legends a dozen times each. They’re still sitting on a shelf at my parents’ house.

Why do you enjoy attending book festivals, either as a presenter or audience member?
Mostly the variety. I’m an eclectic reader, and love pulling in material from as many fields as possible in my writing, and there’s no better place to expand your horizons then a book festival. You can see poets, historical fiction writers, political journalists, war reporters, modern novelists, and nonfiction writers on any topic in just a few hours.

Have you been to the D.C. area before? If so, what is your favorite thing about it?
I live here, actually, so yes! Before I moved out here about seven years ago, I’d visited only once. I live in the District itself, and my favorite thing is that I get all advantages of living in a big city, especially culturally, without a lot of the drawbacks like feeling overly crowded or denied a lack of open space.

What is the most difficult, or challenging, aspect of being a writer?
You do lose a sense of community sometimes—you’re sitting at your desk all day every day, basically alone. So it’s nice to get out to a festival and meet people again…