traces the author’s journey from a childhood fascination with snakes and amphibians, through academic flirtation, to professional association with some of the world’s greatest herpetologists. It leads the reader through desert, swamp, jungle, and lab to reveal the strange world of these cryptic creatures and the often stranger fraternity that pursues them. Both celebrating and sending up the science and philosophy surrounding what surely seems insanity to some, is packed with personalities, history, geography, culture, and an eclectic mix of locales.