non-fiction pleasure reading?

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periglenes
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non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by periglenes »

Can anyone recommend some fun non-fiction reading? Specifically I think I'm looking for accounts of biological expeditions. Some examples I have enjoyed are "Shark" by Zane Gray (stories of his encounters with them while fishing), "Roping Lions in the Grand Canyon" also by Zane Gray (yes, they treed mountain lions, lassoed them, hog-tied 'em, and sold them to zoos). I also recently read "Flamingo Hunt" by Paul Zahl - his account of being the first biologist to attempt to study the flamingos of the Bahamas. I'm not looking for herp-specific stuff, and I'm definitely not looking for stories of deer hunting or other such huntin' and fishin' stuff.

Any ideas? I was considering trying Steinbeck's "Sea of Cortez," but I hated "Grapes of Wrath" in high school, so I'm skeptical. I tried Wallace's "Malay Archipelago" but his writing style moved too slowly for me and I lost interest.

I loved Song of the Dodo by Quammen.

Anyone want to suggest a fun read?

Thanks!

-Frank
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CCarille
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by CCarille »

I enjoyed:
"Mean and Lowly Things" by Kate Jackson (Congo herp research)
"Monkeys are Made of Chocolate" by Jack Ewing (collection of short pieces)
"Stranger in the Forest" by Eric Hansen (trek across Borneo)
"The Snake Charmer" by Jamie James (about Joe Slowinski)
"Deep Survival" by Laurence Gonzales (some great survival and death stories)

Recently reading "Concealing Coloration in Animals" by Judy Diamond and Alan Bond (I love it, but it is completely about the reasons for concealment, coloration, studies, search image, etc)

There are others I can suggest when I get home and can look through what I've read.
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justinm
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by justinm »

I will look through my library at home and pick out the titles I've enjoyed and give you a few.
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gbin
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by gbin »

I've got a ton of "Bring 'Em Back Alive" type books by various early natural historians (including, of course, Bring 'Em Back Alive by Frank Buck :lol: ), but those can be hard to get your hands on and don't sound like quite what you're looking for, either. It's sad (and interesting and educational) rather than fun, but how about Darwin's Dreampond: Drama on Lake Victoria by Tijs Goldschmidt?

Quammen's Song of the Dodo was awesome. And I know what you mean about Wallace's writing (I can recommend a couple of biographies about rather than by him that are fairly entertaining, though; he really deserves much more credit and attention than he gets) - but in my opinion, Darwin's writing is worse! :P

I'll chime in again when more suggestions occur to me, or when I have a better idea of what you'd like.

Gerry
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Jeff
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Jeff »

Track of the Grizzly by Frank Craighead is a very readable masterpiece of the politics of biology, in which the Craigheads were hired to asess the grizzly/campground problem in Yellowstone. The Craigheads describe their years of research, culminating in their sound, biologically based recommendations to the Park Service, resulting in the political decision that was contrary to their plan, and detrimental to the bears.

Desert Journal by Raymond Cowles. Fantastic! Cowles was the pioneer in vertebrate thermoregulation in the early 1900s (he was Stebbins major professor) and discusses chapter-by-chapter his discoveries in reptile adaptations in Southern California when it was still desert and valley grassland.

Mountain Islands and Desert Seas by Frederick Gehlbach is an extremely well-written and cited summary of the fauna and flora of the trans-desert region of the American Southwest. If you are headed to the area between Big Bend and the Huachucas, Fred will give you a vicarious tour of the plants and animals that you will encounter, synthesizing all as if you were on a fun field course.
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periglenes
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by periglenes »

Yes! Thanks very much for some excellent recommendations! I can tell your recommendations for things I haven't read are fantastic because you have also recommended some things I have read and enjoyed! I don't have time during the school year to read book-length stuff for pleasure, and I'm not a particularly fast reader anyway, so you've given me enough suggestions to fill my summer. But keep 'em coming!

-Frank
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Thor Hakonsen
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Thor Hakonsen »

Last Chance To See - Douglas Adams

Funny, educational and important
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Snakes? Humor? Adventure in exotic locales? Educational value, too? Look no further than "A Cobra Hijacked My Camera Bag!". Check out the reviews - all of them five-star.

(Apologies for the shameless plug, but I had to. Some people actually enjoyed the book, and I didn't want to deny you the chance.)

Also look into anything ever written by Peter Matthiessen and Barry Lopez. And speaking of Quammen, his last (Spillover - Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic) is vintage Quammen. Wonderful stories, adventures, and wen you're done with the book, you wonder why they don't teach that stuff in schools.
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gbin
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by gbin »

Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote:... you wonder why they don't teach that stuff in schools.
Indeed! I actually found reading Song of the Dodo very helpful while I was preparing for my qualifying exams. It covered a lot of stuff I'd learned previously and at least some stuff I'd not yet learned at all, and did it all in a far more entertaining fashion than any textbook or classroom lecture I can think of. Quammen is definitely someone special.

Hans, is there any way one might obtain an autographed copy of A Cobra Hijacked My Camera Bag! at this point in time?

Gerry
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

gbin wrote:
Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote:Hans, is there any way one might obtain an autographed copy of A Cobra Hijacked My Camera Bag! at this point in time?
Thanks for the inquiry, Gerry! The book is print-on-demand, so I can't have a big pile sitting at home for sale to walk-in customers, so to speak. I would love to (I actually get quite a few requests), but that would require me to buy the books on line for the same price you would buy it (I was only granted a handful of copies at reduced author price). So the only way to do this would be for you to order it, have Amazon send it to me directly, and I'll send it to your home afterwards (free of charge, of course).
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Kelly Mc
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Kelly Mc »

Songs of the Gorilla Nation, by Dawn Prince Hughs, has unique perspectives that will glean surprisingly familiar to any one who is most at peace around animals.
Tamara D. McConnell
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Tamara D. McConnell »

These two are both wonderful:
A Cobra Hijacked My Camera Bag!
and
Spillover - Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic)
Right now I am reading The Big Year (M. Obmascik), and it's really good.
I just finished a wonderful book called Sex and War: How Biology Explans Warfare and Terrorism and Offers a Path to a Safe World (M. Potts and T. Hayden). The impression I got from Sex and War is that we are pretty much doomed...but it was a gripping read. It's "light" enough to be a good beach book.
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by tomharten »

I enjoyed Raymond Ditmars' Thrills of a Naturalists Quest. Great book by one of the early reptile curators at the Bronx Zoo. Also any of Carl Kauffeld's books make for fun reading, Both Snake and Snake Hunting and Snake's the Keeper and the Kept have interesting accounts of field work.
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Kelly Mc
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Kelly Mc »

I checked out Snakes the Keeper and The Kept over and over on consecutive saterdays after karate class and my lunch across the street at Jack In The Box.

It was always by my pillow. It warmly and brightly polished the architecture of my soul like a piece of wood.
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VanAR
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by VanAR »

"The Last Place You'd Look for a Wallaby: My Obsessive Quest to Seek Out Alien Species"

By Glen Chilton
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PNWHerper
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by PNWHerper »

Two books in this category I would recommend are:

CRY OF THE KALAHARI (A book about the field experiences of a pair of British naturalists in the Kalahari of South Africa.)

and

DESERT JOURNAL (Which was mentioned above).

Both great reads.

Also I have a copy of THE FOREST UNSEEN by my bedside. Excellent book on ecology and a good way to have a personal relationship with it. The author spent a year visiting the same spot everyday, and observing what was in a small area around him.
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Tamara D. McConnell wrote:Right now I am reading The Big Year (M. Obmascik), and it's really good.
Oh yes! MUCH better than the movie!!

"An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles" is also highly recommendable. It's a look at Alfred Russel Wallace's thoughts and travels through the eyes of an American who's lived for 35 years in what used to be called the Malay Archipelago. I've met the author, and he's as interesting as his writing :-)
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tomharten
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by tomharten »

A friend sent me this link to a NYT review of a book called Serpentine, by Mark Laita . I've not seen the book, but it looks interesting. Although a little off the mark from what the original poster was requesting, thought folks might be interested. The photos on the website below look pretty amazing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/scien ... rning.html

Tom
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tomharten
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by tomharten »

A friend sent me this link to a NYT review of a book called Serpentine, by Mark Laita . I've not seen the book, but it looks interesting. Although a little off the mark from what the original poster was requesting, thought folks might be interested. The photos on the website below look pretty amazing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/scien ... rning.html

Tom
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Martti Niskanen
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Martti Niskanen »

Not quite what you're looking for, but contains second hand info on fishing expeditions. Mark Kurlansky's "Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World" is a fantastic read. I started reading it with a *meh*-attitude after my gf's recommendation but got really into it and was mighty impressed.

http://www.amazon.com/Cod-Biography-Fis ... 0140275010
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gbin
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by gbin »

That's a tip I'm going to follow up on, Martti - thanks! In a very similar vein, here's a book on my to-read list that I haven't gotten to yet, but sounds good:

Fifty Animals that Changed the Course of History by Eric Chaline

Gerry
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periglenes
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by periglenes »

Thanks again for all the suggestions. Before I could even track down one of them, my bro-in-law gave me a copy of Imperial Dreams (http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1439191522.

I just finished it last night. It was pretty good, but somewhat dissatisfying because there was never any sense of hope that he might actually see the targeted Imperial Woodpecker. It is much more of a requiem for a lost species and vanishing habitat than an adventure into the wilds searching for them.

Now I need to pick something else from all your recommendations... I'm cheap so I'll probably go with whatever I can get via the library rather than spending $...

Thanks again!

-Frank
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Jimi »

I second Martti's vote - that cod book was EPIC!!!! And, a real bummer....

Although outside the scope of your request - anything, and I mean anything, by John McPhee is excellent "non-fiction entertainment" reading. His The Founding Fish is about American shad. The Control of Nature has some biological relevance (engineering audacity & hubris). As does Annals of the Former World (geological transect across USA at about 40N). The latter is a compilation of I think 4 of his previous works. Oranges is interesting if you've ever lived in Florida. Ditto The Pine Barrens for Jersey, I guess.

Cheers,
Jimi
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Jimi wrote:I second Martti's vote - that cod book was EPIC!!!! And, a real bummer....

Although outside the scope of your request - anything, and I mean anything, by John McPhee is excellent "non-fiction entertainment" reading. His The Founding Fish is about American shad. The Control of Nature has some biological relevance (engineering audacity & hubris). As does Annals of the Former World (geological transect across USA at about 40N). The latter is a compilation of I think 4 of his previous works. Oranges is interesting if you've ever lived in Florida. Ditto The Pine Barrens for Jersey, I guess
IMHO, the best of his books is Coming into the Country, a fantastic account of Alaska and some of the more, uh, individualistic individuals who live there.
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Ribbit »

Many of Gerald Durrell's books are in this general category, and they are all highly entertaining.

John
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periglenes
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by periglenes »

I stumbled across a book on my own bookshelf that I didn't know I had and had never read: Of Whales and Men by R.B. Robertson. It is about industrial whaling during the early 1950s. A real eye-opener. I had no idea that whale blubber was a main ingredient in post-war margarine or how the big factory ships actually worked. Interesting perspectives on the potential sustainability of the resource, and on the politics of whaling (all the gunners were Norwegian, even on English ships).

It's a $4 book from online used bookstores.
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by John Martin »

Here's an obscure title for ya - "Sun, Sand, and Snakes" by Stephen Spawls. About a (I think British, memory escapes me) young fellow who moved to Africa with family and proceeded to have many snake catching adventures. The guy was nuts, climbing trees and tailing Black Mambas among other crazy ventures. I gave away two hard back copies when I moved to Oz and now see the damned book retails for $400+ on AbeBooks. If you can find a copy cheap, it's a good read. :thumb:
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by CCarille »

John - thanks for the putting up that recommendation, I just ordered the book and am excited to read it!

Other great books I would suggest reading are: "Touching the Void" and old (to me at least) but great book and "Lost in the Jungle" another survival story with a twisted ending
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periglenes
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by periglenes »

Thanks again for all the ideas! I'll never get caught up!

I'm cheap. Really cheap. So I don't buy books. While browsing my local library looking for some of your suggestions I came across The Dig Tree by Murgatroyd. It is the story of the first expedition to cross Australia's interior. Unlike Lewis and Clark's exploration, this one was much more deadly, though still regarded by many as a success.

Here's the link on Amazon, if your local library doesn't have a copy:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0767908287
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Re: non-fiction pleasure reading?

Post by Robert Mendyk »

As far as books on natural history go, I prefer the oldies, and would recommend any of William Beebe's books, particularly those which deal with this travels and studies in forests of Guyana and Venezuela (Jungle Days, Jungle Peace, Edge of the Jungle, and High Jungle). His books Galapagos: World's End and Half Mile Down are also superb and inspiring.

I would also recommend older books on exploration/animal collecting for the zoo trade such as those by Frank Buck (Bring'em Back Alive), Heinz Randow (Zoo Hunt in Ceylon), and Carl Hagenbeck (Beasts and Men). I love to get lost in them- in a time when there weren't airplanes and when many of these regions explored were largely inaccessible and dangerous...
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