books...I LOVE books...
I saw this post, and went and took a quick snapshot of my book case full of herp books. That's beside another bookcase full of various books, then there's the book case in the bedroom, the hall way, and... yeah, I love books...
but I also have a problem, I love buying new ones, just don't always have time to read them... wife hates that...
But, the best ones that I HAVE read and really enjoyed are the following.
The Life and Times of Roger Conant...if you find a copy, treasure it!
Rattlesnake portrait of a predator by Manny Rubio...another fantastic book!
Mountain Kings by Brian Hubbs...great read for any herp lover.
The More Complete Chondro by Gregg Maxwell ... a MUST have book for any reptile keeper. READ it!
Serps book Cornsnake Guide...best there is on corn genetics and always up to date on corn morphs.
Yeah, I too have the Kathy Love Manual, heck I have all the ones she had issued, even the one with all the errors such as baby snake hemipenes being extraordinarily long...he he he
good grief, I could be here all day...fact is you can't go wrong with oh, another herp book...LOL! Buy em up! You won't be sorry! I go visit Zoo Book Sales, which is online, all the time. heck, Eric knows me by name, and usually all I have to do is say is, Hello Eric, and he usually says back, Hello Russell ... he he he...yeah, I shop there from time to time... :crazy02: :grin01:
One time I was at a show and he was there too. And one of my buyers asked to get a corn snake book. and I insisted they get the Kathy Love manual. Well he was all sold out. But he had the other books and sold one of them. And he made a good point. Not everyone is going to take the time to read through an extensive book. If they really get into reading, they'll buy the more extensive stuff.
Take The Life and Times of Roger Conant for example. How many people here have read that one? It's 498 pages long, but I couldn't put it down! I enjoyed it! Most people just want the facts and a few pictures. You know what books I'm talking about, I have both. But myself, I prefer the long winded ones if I had to choose!
But just because you might love corn snakes. don't feel like a book on other species won't help you. Cause that's simply not true. There are points made by authors of other species that can definetly help you with your own preferred species. I have many many books on other species that I simply don't own and probably never will.
Pine snakes; right now there really isn't a great book out on these guys. The best is a booklet done back in the thirties. It doesn't have keeper info though, so one has to rely on the internet forums and breeders for info. There is a current softcover out on Pines by Jerry Walls that is got some nice pretty pictures, and some good info. But I feel a good professional book on Pines is in order.
For me this hobby isn't just the animals, it's also the books. The information out there now available to people sure wasn't available to me when I was a kid. But I've now made sure that the local library has several books on herps just in case some fellow bookworm wants a book to read on animals. I like to think my donating a good herp book will inspire and educate some youngster in the field of herps.
So really the question needs to be turned right back to yourself. What exactly are you looking for? How much reading will you realistically do? And I suppose it helps knowing how much your budget can handle. I you don't have much of a life outside your reptile hobby, you might be able to handle a bit more like I have. But now I'm married, well there went three fourths of the budget, and oh, I have a kid now too, there want another three fourths... :grin01:
