The Snakebite Survivors' Club: Travels among Serpents

As somebody who loves snakes and history this book does an excellent job of combining both subjects. Mr. Seal not only talks about the snakes themselves but the locals' personal experiences and legends. A lot of the local history of snakes is covered as well in this book. Mr. Seal's own phobia of snakes provides the book with a bias which I found to be entertaining. If you would like a new perspective on the subject of herpetology I would suggest you read this book.

The Snakebite Survivors' Club by Jeremy Seal is subtitled "Travels Among Serpents." In fact, this book is about travels among people who get sometimes too close to highly poisonous snakes. The book is a travelogue, and British author Seal traveled to four places where snakes are very venomous in pursuit of people who hunt, handle, and get bitten by snakes: Appalachia in the USA where fundamentalists take literally the Bible passage about having faith to handle venomous snakes and sometimes pay the ultimate price, rural southern India where the cobra is worshiped as a phallus symbol and fertility God, Kenya where the black mamba lives in trees and strikes passing humans on the shoulder, and home of the most dangerous snake of all, the Taipan in Far North Queensland, Australia. The book is well constructed, entertaining, and enlightening. Anyone with an interest in the principle subject matter -- people -- will find this a delightful read.

As a snake owner (albeit a non-venomous one) how could I not order this book? When it arrived, I was delighted to find it was beautifully written and taught me about many species of snakes I did not know about, as well as the mind-set of those who seem undaunted by hunting and handling poisonous snakes. I know (from various herpetology society newsletters as well as regular news items) that the lure of breeding and keeping 'hot' snakes (as they are called in the trade) exerts a strong fascination for many. Jeremy Seal captures this psychology very well, as well as the attitude of most of us: we want to look at the deadly creatures, but not too closely. The book also gives fine background about the natural history of Australia and Africa, introduces a set of human 'characters' that you will never forget, and keeps the reader in suspense about many of the stories by shifting locales, like the old matinee cliff-hangers. Like another reader, my only suggestion for improvement would be that he would have come out against the rattlesnake roundups, which will soon be making an impact on the population of the rattlesnakes and sending them the way of the passenger pigeon or the dodo. Such elegant and beautiful creatures (who are only trying to eat and survive, after all) deserve better. Great book, great job, Mr. Seal! Thanks for writing it for snake and non-snake people alike.

A fascinating book which is hard to put down. Seal's writing is enjoyable. Seal explores both the reality and the myths of serpents. After reading this, I'm thankful again that poisonous snakes are confined to the western part of my state, far away from me.

I had expected to find the recollections of a naturalist; instead I found an engaging tour of one man's attempt to overcome his phobia of snakes. It was not really about his fear, though, rather, it was mankind's fear he was challenging. His attitude to down-home rattlesnake roundups put me off, the least he could have done would have been to criticize their brutality. Otherwise, a fantastic book. P.S. if you are looking for a naturalist book, read Erik Pianki's The Lizard Man Speaks.