Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m a science writer, and Iā€™m often inspired to explore topics in my daily life. I grew up shying away from being touched, and it wasnā€™t until I was older that I started to consider why. I was so compelled by this question, and more basic scientific ones such as what the sense of touch even is, that I wrote a whole book about it. Along that journey and beyond, I read about the other senses to see how other authors tackled similar subjects. Each book reminds me that Iā€™m not just a brain floating around but a body full of sensation. 


I wrote

How to Feel: The Science and Meaning of Touch

By Sushma Subramanian,

Book cover of How to Feel: The Science and Meaning of Touch

What is my book about?

We are out of touch. Many people fear that we are trapped inside our screens, becoming less in tune withā€¦

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of A Natural History of the Senses

Sushma Subramanian Why did I love this book?

This is THE book to read on the senses, so Iā€™m stating the obvious here. But let me tell you why it must be at the top of my list. Diane Ackerman takes us through a series of sensuous experiences, from extreme cold to a delicious massage to a thought-provoking meal.

But whatā€™s remarkable is that because sheā€™s a poet, her words pull you out of your mind and into your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin cells. Hereā€™s just one line. ā€œWords are small shapes in the gorgeous chaos of the world. But they are shapes; they bring the world into focus, corral ideas, hone thoughts, paint watercolors of perception.ā€ Like it? This book is full of them, and they left me tingling.

By Diane Ackerman,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked A Natural History of the Senses as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Diane Ackerman's lusciously written grand tour of the realm of the senses includes conversations with an iceberg in Antarctica and a professional nose in New York, along with dissertations on kisses and tattoos, sadistic cuisine and the music played by the planet Earth.

ā€œDelightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible feeling of the worlds the senses take in.ā€ ā€”The New York Times


Book cover of For the Benefit of Those Who See: Dispatches from the World of the Blind

Sushma Subramanian Why did I love this book?

This is a book about how our different experiences of the senses unite and divide us, as explored through Braille Without Borders, which was the first school for the blind in Tibet.

Itā€™s about how self-actualized and independent many blind people are, even as they inhabit a world that views blindness as one of the worst things that could happen to a person, even a curse. For the students at this school, whoā€™ve sometimes been ostracized in their communities, school is an opportunity many of their sighted peers donā€™t have, further complicating their relationships. For me, it was a reminder of something basic about vision. 

We donā€™t know how to use sight when weā€™re born. We must learn it. And that early experience changes the lens through which we see for the rest of our lives.

By Rosemary Mahoney,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked For the Benefit of Those Who See as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the tradition of Oliver Sacks's The Island of the Colorblind, Rosemary Mahoney tells the story of Braille Without Borders, the first school for the blind in Tibet, and of Sabriye Tenberken, the remarkable blind woman who founded the school. Fascinated and impressed by what she learned from the blind children of Tibet, Mahoney was moved to investigate further the cultural history of blindness. As part of her research, she spent three months teaching at Tenberken's international training centre for blind adults in Kerala, India, an experience that reveals both the shocking oppression endured by the world's blind, as wellā€¦


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Book cover of Girl in the Ashes

Girl in the Ashes by Douglas Weissman,

Odette Lefebvre is a serial killer stalking the shadows of Nazi-occupied Paris and must confront both the evils of those she murders and the darkness of her own past. In Douglas Weissman's "Girl in the Ashes," this young woman's childhood trauma shapes her complex journey through World War II France,ā€¦

Book cover of An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

Sushma Subramanian Why did I love this book?

Ed Yong became a well-known figure because he covered COVID-19 for The Atlantic. But he started doing that when he was supposed to work on this book. I was thrilled when it came out because it was a longer wait than expected.

In extremely readable prose, he breaks down the perceptual realms of other creatures. Consider how a dog smells or what songbirds hear, not to mention senses that we donā€™t have that others do, like echolocation (well, some people do) or magnetic sensing. While reading, I started imagining the vast world inaccessible to me because of the limitations of my own senses, which was both awe-inspiring and humbling.

By Ed Yong,

Why should I read it?

20 authors picked An Immense World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Wonderful, mind-broadening... a journey to alternative realities as extraordinary as any you'll find in science fiction' The Times, Book of the Week

'Magnificent' Guardian

Enter a new dimension - the world as it is truly perceived by other animals.

The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving only a tiny sliver of an immense world. This book welcomes us into previously unfathomable dimensions - the world as it is truly perceived by other animals.

We encounter beetles that areā€¦


Book cover of The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession

Sushma Subramanian Why did I love this book?

Luca Turin, a biophysicist and writer, is obsessed with smell. You know those poetic-seeming, almost made-up descriptors we see in wine marketing? Well, thatā€™s how he talks about smells. Turin also wants to figure out how we smell, which we still donā€™t know the answer to. Ultimately, by delving into some past research and building on it, he finds some answers, though theyā€™re still not widely embraced.

Burr shares Turinā€™s story about the complexities of navigating the world of sensory science, especially as a passionate iconoclast. It also left me thinking about the art and science of sensing and about who has more expertiseā€“the seasoned perfumer who can detect the fine notes within a glass bottle or the research scientist trying to describe the smell in a purely factual, scientific way.

By Chandler Burr,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Emperor of Scent as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Emperor of Scent tells of the scientific maverick Luca Turin, a connoisseur and something of an aesthete who wrote a bestselling perfume guide and bandied about an outrageous new theory on the human sense of smell. Drawing on cutting-edge work in biology, chemistry, and physics, Turin used his obsession with perfume and his eerie gift for smell to turn the cloistered worlds of the smell business and science upside down, leading to a solution to the last great mystery of the senses: how the nose works.


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Book cover of The Unlocked Path

The Unlocked Path by Janis Robinson Daly,

The Unlocked Path presents and embraces a "New Woman" of the early 20th century: educated, career-minded, independent. In 1897 Philadelphia, after witnessing her aunt's suicide, Eliza Edwards vows to find ways to help and heal. Rejecting her mother's wishes for her society debut, Eliza enters medical college at a timeā€¦

Book cover of Touch

Sushma Subramanian Why did I love this book?

This is my curveball selection because itā€™s fiction. Itā€™s a dystopian book about our disconnection from our sense of touch, and it so well highlights our fears about technology cutting us off from true experiences. It tells the story of Sloan, who works at a company whose consumers prefer virtual relationships and whose partner believes in something called ā€œpost-sexual sex.ā€ 

But she slowly realizes that people, including herself, are feeling deprived, and she goes on a journey to fight for connection. If I had a criticism of this book as fiction only, Iā€™d say it feels very obviously topical in a way that sometimes detracts from the narrative. But as a treatise on the value of touch, it delivers entirely.

By Courtney Maum,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Touch as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ā€œ[A] warm-hearted tale of a woman reconfiguring her priorities.ā€ā€”O, The Oprah Magazine
 
NPR, "Best Books of 2017"
Belletrist's Book Pick for June
New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice
Glamour, "The 6 Juiciest Summer Readsā€
New York Post, ā€œThe 29 Best Books of the Summerā€
Huffington Post, ā€œ24 Incredible Books You Should Read This Summerā€
Buzzfeed, "22 Exciting Books You Need to Read This Summer"
Refinery 29, ā€œThe Best Reads of May Are Right Hereā€

A heartfelt, hilarious tale of a famous trend forecaster who suddenly finds herself at odds with her own predictions...and her own heart.
 
Estranged from herā€¦


Explore my book šŸ˜€

How to Feel: The Science and Meaning of Touch

By Sushma Subramanian,

Book cover of How to Feel: The Science and Meaning of Touch

What is my book about?

We are out of touch. Many people fear that we are trapped inside our screens, becoming less in tune with our bodies and losing our connection to the physical world. However, the sense of touch has been undervalued since long before the days of digital isolation. Because of deeply rooted beliefs that favor the cerebral over the corporeal, touch is maligned as dirty or sentimental, contrasting with more elevated modes of perceiving the world.

My book explores touch's scientific, physical, emotional, and cultural aspects, reconnecting us to our most important sense. I introduce readers to the scientists whose research underscores the role of touch in our lives. Through vivid individual stories, I explain the science of the somatosensory system and our philosophical beliefs about it. 

Book cover of A Natural History of the Senses
Book cover of For the Benefit of Those Who See: Dispatches from the World of the Blind
Book cover of An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

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Interested in the senses, India, and school?

The Senses 25 books
India 497 books
School 280 books