Tuesday, September 09, 2008

What is Joshua Davis reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Joshua Davis, author of The Underdog - a recounting of his armwrestling, bullfighting, sumo, sauna and backward running adventures.

His entry opens:
At the beginning of the summer, I started reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. It's slow but fascinating, largely because it reveals what a fundamentally creative pursuit science is. These guys would come up with an idea about what a molecule looks like and build a machine from scratch to test that idea. I just find that really exciting - it makes me want to come up with some ideas about how the universe works and build a giant machine in my backyard. I don't think I'd be able to get any uranium at this point but that's just the type of practical hurdles these guys jumped every day. Looking out my window now, I see piles of dog shit, a rake and a couple of rat traps. I'm sure that's the beginning of something.[read on]
Joshua Davis' writing has appeared in GQ, Wired, Outside, Mens Health and Food & Wine, and has been anthologized in the 2006 and 2007 editions of The Best Technology Writing as well as the 2007 edition of Best American Science Writing.

In April of 2003, he snuck into Iraq to cover the war for Wired and later that year became a contributing editor for the magazine.

The Underdog was published in 2005 and is being adapted for the movies.

Brendan Borrell called Davis "one of the most talented narrative journalists working today."

Writers Read: Joshua Davis.

--Marshal Zeringue