Steve's Herpetological Blog

An insight into the life of Steve, his research and the many books he reads

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#StevesLibrary: The Orchid Hunter

After reading The Butterfly Isles earlier on in the year, I went looking for other books that had a similar story to them. Just to recap, in Barkham’s fantastic book, he spends the summer trying to see every species of…

#StevesLibrary: The Humans Who Went Extinct

Something that I’m sure I’ve mentioned on this blog is that I’ve always been fascinated by the origins of our species. To me, the scientific origins of our species are far more interesting than the biblical one, and I always…

#StevesLibrary: No Need for Geniuses

It’s very easy as a Brit to forget that there are other countries out there that have made important contributions to science and engineering. In my mind, it is frustrating that throughout our schooling, our attention is made only to…

#StevesLibrary: Secrets of the Human Body

Something that has always fascinated me is the human body, how it works and how we figured out how so. Therfore in my mind, Secrets of the Human Body was going to be a fantastic read. I think I’m right…

#StevesLibrary: Improbable Destinies

Knowing the author’s name from the world of herpetology, I was expecting there to be slightly more about his research on anoles from the get go. However this is restricted to a single chapter, which in itself is interesting enough….

#StevesLibrary: Invasive Aliens

In the world of conservation, there are few groups of species that catch my attention and imagination more than invasive species. These are species that have been moved outside of their native range (usually by the agency of humankind) to…

#StevesLibrary: Being a Beast

There are some books that leave you speechless when you read them, Being a Beast certainly is one of them. It had been sitting on my shelf for a couple of years gathering dust and now feel like the right…

#StevesLibrary: Alien Places

This week’s review is for a book that I’m happy to bet you haven’t heard of, yet I highly recommend it. Alien Places by Atul Kumar in my eyes is unique among the books I own. My library is heavily…

#StevesLibrary: Pink Pigeons and Golden Bats

Gerald Durrell is one of those figures that I’ve always wanted to meet, unfortunately along with my chance to fly on Concorde – I was born too late. As well as being the founder of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust,…

#StevesLibrary: Death on Earth

I know you’ve all been waiting for another one of these for a long time. fear not as a number of book reviews are coming over the next few weeks. Thankfully the lockdown has given me ample opportunity to catch…