Review by Carley Jones
Some of my favorite books are ones that make me think, “Wow do I love this book… But it sure does make me feel dumb.” Harry W. Greene’s two titles I have read have been the perfect balance of entertainment and education. I actually was only thirty or so pages in before I realized the author of Tracks and Shadows and Snakes were one in the same. It was a pleasant surprise and I was even more excited to devour the literature in front of me.
Snakes is scientific but written in a way that average joes, like myself, can enjoy it. The back describes it as “Scholarly but accessible to the amateur.” Excellent! Eight chapters devoted to general snake topics and each chapter begins with a personal essay about the subject from Greene’s point of view. This book is beautifully descriptive and just long enough. It’s not like one of my other favorite authors, Tolkien, where he can and has described a simple valley for three chapters. I exaggerate for humor, but only to get my point across.
I smiled to myself as I read a description of bushmasters being compared to Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter. “Don’t come closer…” After that I was quickly reminded that as much as this book is casual it is also very scientific as I dove into taxonomy. One’s head will start to spin right around when the intelligent and well-wrote author writes about Anomalepididae, Leptotyphlopidae and Typhlopidae. But you press on because even though you don’t completely grasp what you’ve just read you still cannot put this book down to save your life.
The pictures are absolutely incredible. They were provided by Michael and Patricia Fogden and were the piece de resistance on top of an already beautiful read. I hope I’ve gotten across how much I love this book. I plan on rereading it and taking bullet notes as I go. If you’re like me (someone who doesn’t have a strong schooling background but still wants to be present in the hobby side and academic side of herps) you should give this book a go. You will find yourself using google often to look up words like pterygoid and palatine bones, but it was enjoyable work and such a fun challenge. I’m starting to think Greene’s books are bewitched because of how hard and fast I fell in love with his titles.
