Although it probably won't be as popular as the long standing field guides for birds and flowers it will definitely be just as beautiful:
People love knowing the nature around them. You see it in your wild-haired neighbor who plans his trips around bird migrations. OK so not everyone is like this but many are to varying degrees. It feels good to know what lives around you, that's why field guides are so popular. There are whole subcultures of folks who are devoted to a taxa. I remember as a kid my sister and me would check out books about dog, cat and horse breeds from the library and try to learn as many as we could. My brother had his sharks book. And we weren't the only ones, many children are like this! I can distinctly remember a desire to catalog/collect things in my head and put them into some order so I could wrap my mind around it.
When you get older you start doing it with easily 'collectible' things like birds and flowers or shells. There is a satisfying sense of mastery associated with 'collecting.' I often see it in people I meet birding, everyone feeling like like they understand all the ins and outs of their chosen domain. And this is a great thing! (Though it can sometimes come across as conceit). But this is where a lot of natural science people come from!
Ugh, if I had more time we can discuss citizen science and hobbyist vs. professional routes...but alas, such is the fleeting presence of Time in grad school. So this idea of a field guide for microbes is interesting to me. Even as I am getting more and more entrenched in the microbial world I am finding it hard to locate easily digestible pieces written on them. One thing that popular writing in field guides does is make nature more accessible to for everyone. I wonder if it will be hard for people to care though if they don't own a microscope or something to see the critters with but their presence will be appreciated. Most people are aware microbes are everywhere and have a huge impact on our world (even if most don't understand what that impact is).
Anyways before I rush off to my Friday routine here is a quote I'm sure I've posted before from one of my favorite movies, it certainly doesn't wholly apply to everyone but I think the basic sentiment is true:
"There are too may ideas and things and people. Too many directions to go. I was starting to believe the reason it matters to care passionately about something, was that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size." -Adaptation
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