The Book of Snakes: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species from around the World Kindle Edition

This book features perhaps the most diverse and up to date selection of snake species profiled in a book, with references to many other similar species to the ones profiled. Of special note it doesn't skimp on groups that are usually poorly represented in books, such as threadsnakes and seasnakes (a typical snake guide only showing a few species of each).If was to offer any criticism, it would be that some of the "actual size" photos appear faded or blurry, at least to my eyes, and don't capture the true beauty and crisp look of the actual snake. If I was to speculate, in some cases perhaps this is due to better photos simply not being available of poorly known species, or perhaps a consequence of editing out a photo's original background and/or changing its dimensions. Regardless, it does little to detract from the enjoyment of the book.I'd also caution readers that the "actual size" images can be misleading. As far as I can tell they appear to represent merely average-sized examples (as the lengths given for a given species show, snakes of any species vary widely in size depending on age and individual), and probably also don't always reflect the actual size of the individual snake in the picture (some appear to be photos of young animals for instance). I'll be happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, but the book doesn't appear to explain anywhere on how to interpret the "actual size" aspect of the images.

This book is a treasure! Beautiful from the first moment I held it in my hands. Even underneath the dust jacket it is pretty.I just started exploring this gorgeous tomb, but I am sure I will spend many wide-eyed hours discovering all the 600 snake species described. After a few pages of thorough introductory information about snakes, each species is shown on one page, and each is accompanied by a life-sized photo. In many cases this is a photo of the head. Otherwise the book would have mammoth dimensions. ;-) But there are also smaller versions of the photos, to see the whole of the animal described. Each snake also comes with information about location, size, habitat, diet, etc. and a short description. Those who are familiar with Mark O'Shea's other books will know this to be useful and well researched information.And for those crazy book lovers like me: Yes, it even feels and smells great. ;-)

Beautiful illustrated guide to the world’s snakes. The actual size aspect of it is extremely nice. Snakes that are not featured but related are mentioned. I can spend hours just looking at this comprehensive book. Well worth purchasing.

And quite well-done. I have read most of O'Shea's books, with his treatise on the Snakes of Papua New Guinea being my favorite until now- he has truly outdone himself here- For the most part, he adheres to modern phylology and taxonomy standards, and covers all families and subfamilies here, with a great deal many that I had never heard of- and I am an avid herpetologist/herpetoculturist! I can't reccommend this book highly enough! It is well written, easily read, and covers a breadth heretofore not covered by such a book. The diverity of the serpent world is revealed in accurate detail and all it's bright colors and patterns.... Truly worth every penny.

Great book for snake lovers, some amazing species I've not seen before. Highly recommended

A lovely and engaging book. I do not have snakes for pets and actually the first 25 years of my life I was terrified of them. Then I started reading about these remarkable creatures and my attitude completely changed. The world is full of beauty if we take the time to see it. Snakes are beautiful and this book not only proves that but shows you. This book will live on a coffee table as soon as I get one.

This is one of the best Herpetological books to come out in the last couple years. I always considered myself well read on the subject of World snakes, but there are dozens that appear in this monograph that I've never seen in print before. This is a must have for any reptile enthusiast, zoo worker, zoologist, or herp bibliophile. This is the North American version with a different cover. There is also a European version (insides are identical) which you would have to track down the author on social media to acquire, autographed.

This is an incredible book, with great photos of tons of species; the ones that aren’t photographed (like the western hognose) are at least mentioned under other close relatives. It’s very thorough and gives you region, reproductive facts, venom facts, and much more. My book came quickly in great condition; it was shrink-wrapped and flawless. Also, the original book price is $55; definitely save money and get it here for $38! This is worth every penny! I can’t recommend it enough.

This is quite heavy for a book since it's packed with information and facts about snakes, from the ones most people have heard of such as a black mamba to snakes that hardly anyone knows exist, such as a Barbados threadsnake. What makes this book so great is that each snake has its own page and an actual size photo of them. For the snakes that are too large to fit on the page, you can see the size of their head. This book contains their conservation status (at time of printing), diet, risk factor (venomous etc), their adult size, family, releated species and even their scientific name. It's a great book if you really love and are interested in snakes and want to learn more about them. Even if you don't read the whole book, it's great to have it incase you need to go back to it to look up a snake and do a bit more research on it.I love snakes and I find this book so handy since there's so many species in the book. I usually have a look in the book first before I do further research online

One of the best snake books I have. Very detailed but easy to read. So many amazing species. Has pictures that show the actual size of these animals. Would highly recommend. Definitely worth buying

I didn't read it yet but the book seems to have lots of useful information and be interesting

I bought this on kindle as I couldn’t have the hard copy shipped to my location at the time. I wanted it to be able to identify snakes in specific region in africa. It was difficult to use in its electronic form.

Very detailed book but very easy to read and look up specific details of different snakes! Highly recommend for anyone interested in sizes/patterns/habitat of snakes from around the world