Snakebit: Confessions of a Herpetologist<\/a> <\/em>(affiliate link)\u00a0may send shivers up your spine and produce beads of sweat on your forehead. Few things in the wild world of nature have caused humans as much instinctual anxiety as all things \u201cherp\u201d: snakes, frogs, newts, salamanders, crocodiles\u2026 You know, the talking snake praising the virtue of certain fruits on a certain tree (the Bible), an ageless devourer of light and goodness (Egyptian mythology), a cosmic dragon from which all things were formed (Sumerian mythology)\u2026 You get the idea.<\/p>\nBut Leslie Anthony is out to convince you that he, and others of his ilk, are not really<\/em> bonkers because they love slimy creepy crawly things with fangs and toxins and seriously bad attitudes. Not only love them, but actively seek them out, braving myriad forms of injury and premature death to see them, capture them, classify them, and know them.<\/p>\nAnthony holds a PhD in zoology and is an accomplished travel writer, so he knows his subject intimately and has an ability to sing its praises with well-crafted prose. Plus he has an irreverent sense of humor, which makes for an odd yet remarkable result: a book that is steeped in scientific minutiae and yet thoroughly enjoyable for nearly any lay reader. Well, except the ophidiophobes, of course.<\/p>\n