Goodreads asked Carl Zimmer:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Carl Zimmer My most recent trade book was "A Planet of Viruses." That started out as a series of essays I wrote for an educational project. But eventually I had accumulated enough essays that one of my colleagues said, "I think you've written a book." When we approached the University of Chicago Press on the question, they agreed. Obviously, I had to do some fine-tuning to the essays to make them hold together as a book, but the whole experience still felt strange and funny. Sometimes you don't get an idea for a book. Sometimes the idea gets you.

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