QUICK TAKES - May 1, 2009

The swine flu outbreak has boosted sales for an acclaimed history of the 1918 pandemic and helped biologist Nathan Wolfe get a six-figure deal for a book about viruses.

As of Thursday afternoon, John M. Barry’s “The Great Influenza,” which came out five years ago, had climbed to No. 99 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list. Barry’s book tells of the 1918 pandemic that killed millions worldwide. A Barry work about the Mississippi River flood of 1927, “Rising Tide,” became popular after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

Also Thursday, publisher Henry Holt said that it had acquired Wolfe’s “The Viral Storm,” a book about “how viruses and humans have evolved side-by-side over the millennia” and “how viruses have often had the upper hand in the relationship.”