Steve's Herpetological Blog

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

Book Review

#StevesLibrary: The Selfish Gene

The Selfish Gene is one of those books I read back during my undergrad years whilst studying animal behaviour. For those of you that are unaware, it is Richard Dawkins’ first book and at the time it was highly influential….

#StevesLibrary: The Feather Thief

First of all I must congratulate Kirk Wallace Johnson for writing such a thrilling true-crime narrative, that in truth is stranger than fiction. I’ve been aware of the Tring heist executed by Edwin Rist in 2009 for some while, thanks…

#StevesLibrary: The Hidden Life of Trees

I recently read The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben and generally thought it was a engaging read. In the book, Wohlleben shares his deep love and knowledge of forests drawing on decades of experience working within German forestry….

#StevesLibrary: The Pebbles on the Beach

If you’ve read my previous #StevesLibrary post then you will have probably found out that I have quite the passion for geology. That brings us to the latest book I recently put down, The Pebbles on the Beach by Clarence…

#StevesLibrary: The Lie of the Land

It probably isn’t a surprise to many of you that I developed a deep interest in geology as a teen and even studied it at A-level in college. Since those days, I have followed my true passion of zoology/herpetology but…

#StevesLibrary: The Future of Life

Those of you that read this blog regularly will know that I have a soft spot for Edward O. Wilson, one of the grandfathers of modern ecology. I’d previously read his earlier book The Diversity of Life whilst carrying out…

#StevesLibrary: Bad Science

It should be stated first that the author Ben Goldacre (who you may recognised from TV, indeed I first saw him on an episode of QI) also has a website and a former weekly column in The Guardian of the…

#StevesLibrary: Sex on Earth

Recently, I finished reading a book by the very entertaining and enthusiastic Jules Howard, a book that I wouldn’t recommend reading on the train/bus unless you want some confused faces looking your way. I am of course talking about Sex…

#StevesLibrary: Arrival of the Fittest

Recently, I read Arrival of the Fittest: How Nature Innovates by Andreas Wagner, those of you familiar with this regular section on my blog will know that I enjoyed it very much. Most biologists are familiar with Charles Darwin’s theory…

#StevesLibrary: Darwin’s Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists

Rebecca Stott has authored a couple of books on the life of the most famous naturalist, Charles Darwin. The first titled Darwin and the Barnacle outlines his labour of love to classify and learn everything he could do about barnacles….