In Search of Reptiles and Amphibians [Hardcover]

Richard D. Bartlett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1988

An accomplished naturalist's quest for snakes, turtles, lizards, frogs, and toads as the author travels thoughout the U.S., Mexico and Central America. He paints vivid natural history pictures with words in addition to the 40 full color illustrations oof the species and their habitats. Fascinating reading!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The author is a herpetologist.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 363 pages
• Publisher: Flora & Fauna Pubns; 1st Edition. edition (December 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916846415
• ISBN-13: 978-0916846411
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,806,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "In Search of"... a Better Book Than This, November 16, 2004

By 

ReptiBooks - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search of Reptiles and Amphibians (Paperback)

Richard Bartlett's "In Search of Reptiles and Amphibians" is a collection of stories from the field that attempts to relate the joy that herp enthusiasts (those who enjoy reptiles and amphibians) experience in their many adventures in search of these wonderful creatures, but fails to connect for several reasons.

As soon as you begin to read the book, you will notice countless errors (extra spaces between words, words missing or misspelled) that severely detract from the message the author wishes to convey.

Assuming you can trip over all the errors and still continue to read, you'll find that the author is a huge fan of adjectives. It is as if someone instructed the writer that a sentence is sub-par if it contains less than a dozen descriptive words or so. It appears as if the author were trying for Thoreau, but only achieves awkwardness.

Also, I see little more in the stories involved other than glorification of the author. The basic plot of virtually every anecdote is "I found something really interesting. Everyone look at me. You can't find them anymore, so don't even try." The stories are typically very short (2-3 pages) and in an attempt to come back to topic, a description of the species in question is presented after the ramblings.

Another thing that concerns me is that the author condemns the practice of collecting animals from the wild on several occasions throughout the book (Ch. 10, etc.), but in a subsequent chapter talks about keeping the only specimen of a species he has seen in 30 years (Ch. 11). Not very responsible (in writing or in practice), in my opinion.

If the reader is just starting an interest in reptiles and amphibians, then these stories might be of value. Anyone with more experience/knowledge in the field than a novice would do better to find something else to read.