BookEnds Talks to Christopher Passante
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Sep 22 2006
Christopher Passante
Book: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Extreme Weather
Publisher: Alpha Books
Pub date: September 2006
Christopher Passante is the managing editor of The Beaufort Gazette in Beaufort, South Carolina. A longtime newspaper reporter and editor, he also has written numerous outdoors columns and has dabbled in extreme sports under heavy weather, including sailing, skiing, kayaking, and mountain sports. He lives with his wife, Robyn, in Port Royal, South Carolina.
BookEnds: Describe your book in 50 words or less.
Christopher: The past few years have delivered some of the most awesome and destructive weather patterns in history. From blistering heat and icy blasts, to hurricane winds and the Greenhouse Effect, The Compete Idiot’s Guide to Extreme Weather enables readers to experience the incredible ferocity of big, bad weather without getting soaked, wind-tossed, thunderstruck, or frozen. And with the CD-ROM that accompanies the book, they’ll learn what it’s like to be a real-life storm tracker.
BookEnds: What do you think distinguishes your work from other similar books?
Christopher: It offers a survey of extreme weather around the world—without the boring science. It also offers both timely and timeless examples of severe weather, and does so in a fun-to-read way.
BookEnds: What is your favorite thing about this book?
Christopher: That we can talk conversationally about severe weather without making it trivial.
BookEnds: Who do you consider the audience for your book?
Christopher: Novice to expert. Weather Channel fanatics to the casual weather wonderer. Face it, we all live in areas that are prone to heavy weather. Understanding how extreme weather is generated through science, example, and trend-watching can help us cope with Mother Nature’s fiercest.
BookEnds: Besides the obvious audience for your book (those the publisher targets), who else do you think can benefit from what you’ve written?
Christopher: There are so many good historic examples of storm data in this book that anyone looking for research on the subject of extreme weather would benefit greatly.
BookEnds: How do you think your book is important to readers?
Christopher: It could save your life.
BookEnds: How do you think your book is important to readers?
Christopher: It could save your life.
Well, I’d say that’s pretty convincing, for sure!
Sounds like a most intriquing book. I’ll have to watch for it.
What a fantastic topic for a book–I’m looking forward to reading it.